Korean Central News Agency
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Korean Central News Agency | |
|---|---|
| Chosŏn'gŭl: | 조선중앙통신 or 조선통신사 |
| Hanja: | 朝鮮中央通信 or 朝鮮通信社 |
| McCune-Reischauer: | Chosŏn Chungangt'ongsin or Chosŏn T'ongsinsa |
| Revised Romanization: | Joseon Jungangtongsin or Joseon Tongsinsa |
The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) is the state news agency of North Korea and has existed since December 5, 1946.
KCNA is headquartered in the capital city of Pyongyang. In addition to Korean, KCNA releases news articles in English, Russian, and Spanish.
KCNA regularly reports news for all the North Korean news organizations (including newspaper, radio and TV broadcasts via Korean Central Television) within the country, and also is the main news organization of North Korea. Most news that is released to an international audience, and which is quoted by international press, originates from the KCNA. As the state-owned news agency of North Korea. KCNA is the mouthpiece of the North Korean government, and serves a similar purpose as Soviet-era TASS.
Since December 1996 the KCNA has been publishing its news articles on the Internet, with its web server ironically located in Japan. No other official North Korean organization, company or government office has a web presence.
On January 1, 2006 the agency sent out a joint-editorial from North Korea's state newspapers calling for the withdrawal of American troops from South Korea. [1] While annual January 1st editorials are a tradition among the papers, this year's brought attention from Western media outlets, by calling for a "nationwide campaign for driving out the U.S. troops".[2] The editorial made several references to Korean reunification.
[edit] Recurring Themes
KCNA articles generally revolve around several specific themes:
- Past exploits of Kim Il-sung
- Oversight by Kim Jong-il of cultural events, domestic projects, and military training
- Decrying the actions and attitudes of the United States, Japan, South Korea and other nations, particularly as regards military cooperation
- Calling for the reunification of Korea under communism
- Extolling the military prowess of the DPRK
- Communications, visits, and gifts to and from various friendly nations
- Citing "international support", mostly from small organizations abroad that are either sponsored or organized by the North Korean government
- Wonderous new technological developments, most of which can be used as animal feed in addition to their regular usage (a "tanning ferment", in an example from September 27, 2006)
- Miraculous cures typically either made from rare medicinal herbs from the Korean mountains or mineral water abundant in the country. The cure is usually said to contain amino acids, and microelements, particularly when the cure is a mineral water. Radon content is stressed and praised (with 270 Bq/L in an example would be an atricle titled "Famous Ongjin Spa" from October 24, 2006)
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- DPRK Database, contains daily KCNA bulletins, Korean Central TV daily newscasts, and other articles and videos on DPRK.
- KCNA Tokyo, KCNA homepage
- NK News, a website dedicated to KCNA
