Media of North Korea

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The constitution provides for freedom of speech and the press; however, the government prohibits the exercise of these rights in practice. The communication systems that are active in North Korea include telephones (main lines in use totaled 1.1 million in 2001), international telephone systems with two satellite earth stations (one Intelsat and one Russian, all other international connections are through Moscow and Beijing), radio broadcast stations (AM 16, FM 14, and shortwave 11 as of 1999), and television broadcast stations (38 as of 1999). Although the majority of households contain radios and television sets, reception is restricted to government broadcasts. North Korea has 12 principal newspapers and 20 major periodicals, all of varying periodicity and all published in Pyongyang. Like electronic media, print media are all controlled by the state. The Korean Central News Agency (KNCA) is the sole news distributor in North Korea. KCNA broadcasts in Korean, English, Spanish, and Russian and offers an English-language Web site. The major newspaper is Rodong Sinmun (Workers’ Daily).

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• This article contains material from the Library of Congress Country Studies, which are United States government publications in the public domain.