Media coverage of North Korea (officially known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea) is hampered by an extreme lack of reliable information, coupled with an abundance of sensationalist falsehoods. There are various reasons for this lack of information and inaccurate stories.
Access to North Korea by foreign news media is severely restricted by the North Korean government. There are very few full-time correspondents in the country. In the absence of on-the-spot reportage, a key source of information about North Korea is the testimony of defectors, but they are not necessarily reliable for several reasons. Overall, much information about North Korea is filtered through South Korea, and the longstanding conflict between the two states distorts the information that is received.
Despite North Korea being a "black box" to outsiders, strong interest in the Kim family, as well as misunderstandings of Korean culture, have also led to inaccurate reporting. In the absence of solid evidence, some media outlets turn to sensationalism, basing stories on rumors. Stereotypes, exaggerations, or caricaturing distort some media coverage of North Korea. There has been some media coverage based on hoaxes or satire. There have even been cases of publication of contradictory stories based on hearsay and rumour, on the sole basis that these stories affirm prior skewed impressions of the country.
Overall assessments
In 2014, Tania Branigan, a correspondent for The Guardian, said that there "are few other international topics on which so much is published with so little relation to or even care for the truth" by media outlets "with all sorts of standpoints and of widely varying quality". Branigan offers several reasons why this is the case. First, because North Korea stories attract many readers, editors and reporters may have an "overwhelming" temptation to run even suspect stories. Second, journalists have severely limited sources in North Korea: "We can't pick up the phone and ask Pyongyang for comment, then call some North Korean farmers to see if they agree. Even if we call an expert, they will often be hypothesizing.... At the worst, we may only be able to find out whether it is plausible or not. The demands of rolling news contribute to this because we now have a system where people are producing stories much faster. In many cases, sites are doing little or no original reporting but aggregating and sending on. Mistakes get replicated, even expanded". Third, relatively few journalists speak Korean. Fourth, because North Korea is an isolated society, "stories may be too hard to disprove: The difficulties of accessing information also mean it is impossible for anyone to flat out refute many stories about North Korea. So a website or television station may run a highly questionable piece but even if they are challenged on it, it's hard to demonstrate that they are indisputably wrong". Finally, "North Korea is simply so bizarre and unlikely in many regards that it often seems anything is possible there".
In 2015, filmmaker Anna Broinowski wrote, "If any country proves sensationalism beats truth in the social media economy, it's North Korea".
In 2022, David Tizzard wrote in NK News that, "It's certainly true that some media use exaggerated and orientalist language in their reporting on life in the DPRK. Many will have seen the sensationalist stories about death by dogs, 11 holes-in-one and so on. Such reporting is incredibly problematic and is not just restricted to tabloids and fringe websites. But there is also a great deal of accurate, informed and balanced coverage of North Korea. In fact, it could be reasonably argued that the country has never been understood better."
Lack of reliable information
Media coverage is hampered by a lack of reliable information. The verification of facts is notoriously difficult. For example, researcher Christopher Green has described trying to confirm a story about Vice Marshal Ri Yong-ho being killed in a firefight in Pyongyang in 2012, but being unable to find a source there that knew about it. Even intelligence agencies struggle with the task. Former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, National Security Adviser, and CIA officer Donald Gregg has described North Korea as the "longest-running intelligence failure in the history of US espionage". Former CIA director Robert Gates called it the "toughest intelligence target in the world". Economist Rüdiger Frank, speaking about difficulties with analyzing North Korean economic data, said "The main problem is not the reliability of data; there is a lack of numbers in general, even manipulated ones".
Isaac Stone Fish of Foreign Policy and Christophe Deloire of Reporters Without Borders have described the country as an information "black hole". Simple facts, such as whether marijuana is illegal in North Korea, are difficult to ascertain. According to Ralph Cossa, president of the Pacific Forum of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, "Anyone who tells you that they know anything for certain about North Korea is either trying to kid you or trying to kid themselves." Analyst Andrei Lankov has compared reporting North Korea to the parable of the blind men and an elephant, with analysts falsely extrapolating from limited data. Several authors have referred to a North Korean "rumor mill". South Korean journalists and media experts have described this as a "systemic problem".
Due to the popularity of North Korean news, however, stories are frequently widely circulated in the global media with minimal fact-checking or analysis. Often journalists retail stories uncritically because they assess them as impossible to verify. South Korean journalists have reported a vicious circle, in which a rumour reported in South Korea is picked up by an international media outlet and then is reported by the South Korean media as fact. False reports of deaths and coups have occurred frequently over decades.
In 2020, academics and politicians in South Korea expressed their concern about false reporting of North Korea. Kyungnam University's Institute of Far Eastern Studies published a book, Multi-layer Analysis and Understanding of False Information about North Korea, about the issue.
Reporting in North Korea Media in North Korea are under some of the strictest government control in the world. The main local media outlet is the Korean Central News Agency. North Korea has a high level of security and secrecy. Communication with the outside world is limited, and internal communication also seems limited at times. Reporters Without Borders describes North Korea as the world's most closed country, ranking it last in the Press Freedom Index. DPRK Today is a Chinese-based website that carries North Korean propaganda but is not exactly the mouthpiece of the North Korean government.
The North Korean government places stringent restrictions on foreign reporters, visitors, and even residents of foreign origin. Freedom of movement is severely curtailed, interactions with local people are supervised, and photography is heavily regulated. Because of this reporters often find it difficult to check stories and establish hard facts. North Korean and Western journalists have different understandings about the role of the media. (The situation is different for Russian and Chinese journalists reporting on North Korea). North Koreans expect Western journalists to behave like Soviet journalists during the Cold War, while Western journalists would like to exert the freedom of the press more widely. Researching topics like prison camps are out of bounds, and North Korean officials are often reluctant to give statements on the record. As with tourists, foreign journalists are always accompanied by minders, and any encounters with locals have been arranged. Foreign journalists have access to the Internet, making real-time reporting possible. Although control is strict, foreign journalists are only rarely expelled from the country. In 2014, photographer Eric Lafforgue was banned from returning after taking many candid photographs. In 2019, Australian student Alek Sigley was detained and deported on the grounds that the columns he wrote for news outlets such as NK News were espionage.
In 2019, there were only five foreign correspondents permanently stationed in North Korea: from Russia's TASS news agency, China's People's Daily, China Central Television, Xinhua, and Cuba's Prensa Latina. Cuba's correspondent had greater access than many foreign journalists, but still faced restrictions, such as being unable to use public transport. Freelance journalists occasionally visit, and large numbers of international media converge on the country during major events.
The Associated Press opened a video-only bureau in Pyongyang in 2006. In 2012, the bureau became the first Western all-format bureau in the country. The bureau does not have a full-time presence. Rather, the journalists can only stay for weeks at a time in the country before having to renew their visa. David Guttenfelder visited North Korea as an AP photographer between 2000 and 2013 and experienced the easing of restrictions over time. In 2013, he reported being able to upload photographs onto Instagram without censorship.
Agence France-Presse opened a bureau in 2016. Under an agreement with the Korean Central News Agency, AFP will be able to send teams of journalists into the country. As part of the agreement, a North Korean photographer and a videographer will produce content under AFP supervision. Japan’s Kyodo news agency also has a bureau, but like AP and AFP does not have full-time staff.
Reporting outside North Korea Many analysts and journalists have never visited North Korea or have had very limited access. As a result, their books and articles may rely on speculation and scanty information gleaned from a single, uncorroborated source, such as a defector. Other reports rely on the analysis of satellite imagery.
NK News aims to be the most reliable source of news about North Korea. It has staff in the US, Europe, and South Korea.
South Korean–based Daily NK uses a network of anonymous North Korean informants from across the country.
Defectors as sources
Defectors from North Korea are a key source of first-hand information for intelligence officers, scholars, activists, and journalists. While their testimony is considered valuable, there is growing skepticism about the veracity of their accounts. Often, defectors are cited anonymously to protect their identities, which makes it difficult to verify their information. Moreover, defectors often have limited experience and are not experts on North Korea.
For their part, when surveyed in 2017 by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, many defectors complained that journalists had violated their right to privacy.
Felix Abt, a Swiss businessman who lived in the DPRK, argues that defectors are inherently biased. He says that 70 percent of defectors in South Korea are unemployed, and selling sensationalist stories is a way for them to make a living. He also says that the overwhelming majority of defectors come from North Hamgyong Province, one of North Korea's poorest provinces, and often have a grudge against Pyongyang and provinces nearby. He says that defectors in South Korea's resettlement process tailor their accounts over time to become less mundane and more propagandistic. He criticizes journalists and academics for not being skeptical about even the most outlandish claims made by defectors. Similarly, academic Hyung Gu Lynn has commented that some defectors embellish or fabricate their stories to sell books or lobby for regime change. Representatives of the defector community in South Korea have also expressed concern about the unreliability of defector testimony.