Talk:Korean Central News Agency

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Comparison to Pravda[edit]

"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 Pravda."

I may be wrong, but wouldn't it be more accurate to compare KCNA to TASS? -- timc talk 16:32, 27 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I came here to say the exact same thing, and saw Timc's note. Pravda was merely the newspaper of the CPSU (there is also a newspaper for the KWP as well), while TASS was the news agency, like KCNA. I vote that we edit it to say TASS instead. NYDCSP 00:14, 20 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Bias[edit]

" Most news that is released to an international audience, and which is quoted by international press, originates from the KCNA."

There is nothing to support this, and it does indeed sound biased.

I read this and just went "wow": # Decrying the actions and attitudes of the United States, Japan, South Korea and other nations, particularly as regards military cooperation, historical events or trade among those nations. ...

Promoting the personality cults of Kim Jong-il and Kim Il-sung.

Totally tagged this article for NPOV. I have no idea where the editor in question gets this from but it's inflammatory and uncited. Dextrose (talk) 18:19, 12 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

so the fact that whenver they mention those countries north korea is portrayed as the kingdom of perfection and everybody else hates japan, the US and south korea isn't proof? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 205.202.243.5 (talk) 14:18, 2 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

south Korea[edit]

"South Korea (ROK) is always referred to as "south Korea", as one would describe a place, not a nation"

Disregard that —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.44.118.26 (talk) 11:07, 6 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Probably because when they have to refer to the government or the country, they will use the Korean ... "proper noun" (?!). South and North refer to places (probably), and "Daehanminguk" and "Chosun Minjujueui Inminkonghwaguk" refer to the countries. Maybe (since I have not seen KCNA things for any long period of time to know). But I do know for sure that N and S Chosun, rather than N and S Han are used by N Korean press. 118.90.25.170 (talk) 10:31, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Add section of "common language"[edit]

Should there be an added section on "common language" used in KCNA reports? For example, here's a direct quote:

If Japan finally launches re-invasion despite the repeated warnings from the DPRK, it will give vent to the grudge against Japan pent up for more than a century and send the whole of Japan, a country of islands, into the bottom of the sea. This is the unanimous will and tough stand of the servicepersons and people of the DPRK to struggle against Japan. Japan should learn the truth that this extraordinary readiness and will are guaranteed by full capability. The Japanese reactionaries would be well advised to halt such rash acts.

Source: [1]

As you can see, Japanese are referred to as "reactionaries". Words such as "imperialists" and "capitalist dogs" are commonly used.

Similar sentiment against the US:

The imperialists are now becoming evermore undisguised in their sanctions and pressure upon the anti-imperialist, independent countries. They have pulled up those countries over "human rights issues" and "absence of democracy" for the mere reason that they refused to follow them. Not content with this, they are putting sanctions and pressure upon these countries, charging them with drug trafficking," proliferation of WMDs and flesh traffic" and the like. Through this they seek to isolate the above-said countries worldwide and set up "governments serving them" and thus realize their ambition to dominate the world. In a word, the imperialists' rackets of sanctions and pressure are a wanton infringement upon the sovereignty of the independent countries and a product of their sinister plot to realize the above-mentioned ambition. The article cites facts to prove that the U.S. is now escalating its sanctions and pressure upon such sovereign countries as Myanmar, Syria, Belarus, Iran and Zimbabwe. This is censured and condemned by the world public for being an infringement upon the sovereignty of these countries and interference in their internal affairs.

Articles about those from the DPRK itself, however, have an ordinary language format:

Pyongyang, August 13 (KCNA) -- DPRK weightlifter Pak Hyon Suk won a gold medal at the weightlifting competition of the 29th Olympic Games now under way in China. She lifted 241kg total with 106kg in snatch and 135kg in jerk by making a quick jerk and a brilliant show of strength. She thus came first in the 63kg category final competition held on Tuesday.

-- 李博杰 | —Talk contribs 06:47, 14 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Lack of Credibility[edit]

One thing that is painfully obvious to readers here in the U.S. is the lack of credibility in the KCNA news reports. The North Koreans simply do a straight translation of their internal news reports and put it out on the KCNA website. The use of very bombastic language, the overwhelmig bias, use of derogatory terms, and the lack of - I guess 'detachment' would be the word here, makes for articles that are rather laughable, and reinforces the image that North Korea is a totalitarian state. If the KCNA were really serious about presenting their points of view in a way that would CONVINCE readers of their sincerity, then they should hire people who understand the prose of the newspapers of their target audience, and have them edit the reports accordingly.

Example of KCNA article:

"If Japan finally launches re-invasion despite the repeated warnings from the DPRK, it will give vent to the grudge against Japan pent up for more than a century and send the whole of Japan, a country of islands, into the bottom of the sea. This is the unanimous will and tough stand of the servicepersons and people of the DPRK to struggle against Japan.
Japan should learn the truth that this extraordinary readiness and will are guaranteed by full capability.
The Japanese reactionaries would be well advised to halt such rash acts."

Edited Example:

"The General Staff of the KPA have reiterated to the government their readiness to respond to any outright acts of aggression by Japan's Military Forces upon the DPRK. Should Japan attack, they say, the KPA have the ability and means to easilly repell and defeat them."

It makes for clearer and easier reading.

Talk contribs 05:52, 28 May 2010 (CDT)

Suspicious Origins, URL[edit]

I wonder if anyone finds it suspicious that the KCNA should use kcna.co.jp as a domain considering the relations with Japan. Why not use a Chinese or Russian domain? Some analysts feel this website is a forgery by Japanese and US intelligence purposely employing bombastic language to discredit the DPRK, while actual news from North Korea is filtered. just sayin'. --APDEF (talk) 15:20, 27 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The KCNA website is funded either wholly or in part by North Koreans living within Japan, it's also a source of funding generally for the Korean government. There is a small but substantial North Korean ethnic minority group living in Japan --58.165.180.54 (talk) 11:45, 1 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I had to share this :-)[edit]

I know it's more like gossip, but it's also an argument for the ones who criticize this article as biased: Oct 6th 1997

Mysterious natural phenomena

Pyongyang, October 6 (KCNA) -- Mysterious natural phenomena were witnessed on September 28, when Secretary Kim Jong Il, Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army, inspected KPA unit No. 576, which was undergoing examinations for the "O Jung Hup's seventh regiment title". The fields and mountains around the unit were wrapped in a thick fog from the early morning of the day. When Secretary Kim Jong Il in a car arrived at the entrance to the unit, the fog cleared off and the sun shone bright in the blue sky. 2 apricot trees on either side of the road to the unit had 28 and 26 blossoms respectively. Seeing the mysterious natural phenomena, the unit servicemen said that Secretary Kim Jong Il is the famous general produced by heaven.

KCNA.kp start date[edit]

Can anyone confirm that kcna.kp started output in October, 2011? I have spidered and indexed the entire kcna.kp output to a database, and the articles are sequential, starting at 0000001. This article is dated January 1, 2012. reproduced at http://www.nknews.org/kcna-watch/kcna-article/?0000001 and reproduced again by kcna.co.jp at http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2012/201201/news01/20120101-17ee.html

I can't find any trace of kcna.kp output before this date. In it's publicly available archive the first article is the one linked to above

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