South Korean journalist offers rare peek into hermit NK newsroom

Rodong Sinmun headquarters in Pyongyang. Captured from Encyclopedia of Korean Culture

By Park Si-soo

Kim Soo-han. Korea Times photo by Park Si-soo

For North Korea experts, Rodong Sinmun, the mouthpiece newspaper of the ruling Workers' Party, is one of the most valuable resources giving a hint of what Kim Jong-un has in mind.

Numerous researchers and studies have explored subjects ranging from editorial policy and published articles, to photos, keywords and even the frequency of swear words dished out toward world leaders, in a bid to go deeper into the nuclear-armed hermit kingdom ― but with the paper's newsroom and reporters largely untouched.

The deliberate no-touch was based on the widespread presumption that Rodong's reporters were nothing more than "writing robots," only relaying messages from high-ups.

Yet Kim Soo-han, a South Korean journalist at the Herald Business, didn't think so and dug into the subject from 2011. Eight years later, in July 2019, Kim was conferred with a PhD from Dongguk University in Seoul, with a dissertation containing several new findings that upend the pre-existing notion.

"It was wrong to think that they (Rodong reporters) were nothing more than typists," Kim said in a recent interview with The Korea Times. "They picked topics to write about on their own and wrote their own stories, which means they worked with freedom to some extent. Stories always unfolded in a way casting positive messages about Kim and his country, but it was due to the paper's editorial policy, not because reporters were void of thought."

He identified 16 influential columnists who play a crucial role in shaping public opinion ― to be finely aligned with the party line ― with their own voices and anecdotes.

He corroborated this by analyzing the content of nearly 13,000 bylined articles published between 2008 and 2016. On top of this, he compiled traces of newsroom restructuring, personnel reshuffles and measured the productivity of reporters and the newsroom, which gave him a rough but rare picture of how Rodong Sinmun transformed during the 2008-2016 period.

"There was no public disclosure or something like that with regard to Rodong Sinmun's internal affairs," he said. "So I had to do everything by myself manually."

Changes after Kim Jong-un took power

He said two notable changes were observed at Rodong after Kim Jong-un took power ― a sharp decline in reporters and expanded coverage of economic, science and technology issues.

While the number of reporters in the closing period of the Kim Jong-il era (Sept. 2008-Sept. 2009) was 278, it fell to 189 after Kim Jong-un took power in December 2011.

In the former period, socialism and state ideology, "Juche," were the most popular story items (31.2 percent of coverage), while in the latter, economic news took the biggest portion of coverage (23.8 percent). Ideological ones became the seventh popular item (6.1 percent), even trailing news about South Korea (9.4 percent).

"These changes give a hint of what Kim Jong-un pursues," he said.

The downsizing of the newsroom was believed to bolster "production efficiency" by cutting out lazy, unproductive reporters, he said.

"I found some names that appeared only a couple of times a month," Kim said.

As of August 2016, Rodong's newsroom was comprised of 10 desks, with the science/technology desk holding the biggest number of reporters (36). Equal second were the "Party Life" desk covering ruling party-related issues and the "Socialism Etiquette" desk covering social affairs, both with 33 reporters.

There were 18 reporters who covered South Korea and 15 for international news. The newspaper had 13 photographers and eleven correspondents. The "Manufacturing Industry" desk was the smallest of the 10 with only five reporters.

Kim said the reunification of the two Koreas is "a matter of time, not a matter of possible or impossible."

"I'm planning to expand my study into social and cultural issues of North Korea," he said. "By doing so, I will be able to draw a picture of my own as to how the two Koreas could be integrated socially and culturally when the reunification becomes a reality."

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