To See North Korea, Keep Your Eyes Peeled On the Official Press
This just in: 2003 was a "proud year of victory" for North Korea in its atomic standoff with the U.S., thanks to the wisdom of supreme leader Kim Jong Il and the "might" of the country's armed forces.
In other news, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is "human scum" and a "political dwarf," and "the Bush group remains unchanged in its wolfish design to unleash a new war on the Korean peninsula at any cost."
What's black and white and red all over? North Korea's official press.
North Korean journalism is a throwback to Cold War agitprop, full of references to class struggle and the battle between revolutionaries and reactionaries. "If the U.S. imperialists and their stooges ignite a new war, our army and people will deal an annihilating blow," Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported late last year.
In an annual rite in North Korea, the official press in recent weeks stepped up its sycophantic coverage of Kim Jong Il, in honor of the dictator's birthday last Monday. Officially, he was 62, although some people believe he is a little older. One story, under the headline "Profound Reverence for Kim Jong Il Expressed World-wide," says that people around the planet "are extending highest glory to leader Kim Jong Il and singing praises of his immortal exploits."
For all its anachronistic bluster and personality-cult propaganda, the pugnacious state-run press remains one of Pyongyang's most important tools for communicating with the outside world. It is also one of the most important windows for outsiders onto life in North Korea, which has relatively few diplomatic missions abroad and no official representatives in Seoul, Tokyo and Washington.
The country's initial public response to President Bush's offer of a written security pledge if North Korea abandons its nuclear programs, for instance, came through the official media. First, a commentary carried by KCNA called the president's overture "laughable." Later, the news agency quoted a foreign ministry spokesman saying that North Korea would "consider" the proposal. What to make of that?
A North Korean soldier pledges to become a "human bomb" for Kim Jong Il in this poster photographed by the Korean Central News Agency.
Intelligence analysts and academics in the U.S. and Asia meticulously parse every sentence in North Korean dispatches. They are searching for clues to everything from the health of the country's economy to power dynamics within the ruling elite. And they are always on the lookout for subtle messages to other countries.
In Seoul, the Defense Ministry and the National Intelligence Service monitor the North Korean media around the clock. "Because North Korea has been -- and still is -- so closed, what appears in the North Korean media is the object of a good deal of scrutiny here" and elsewhere, says Larry A. Niksch, a policy analyst in the foreign affairs, defense and trade section of the Congressional Research Service in Washington. Interest is especially keen in anticipation of next week's nuclear-weapons talks in Beijing involving the U.S., South Korea, Japan, China, Russia and North Korea.
Mr. Niksch says that among the first clues that North Korea's centrally planned economy was unraveling and food supplies were dwindling were press accounts in the early 1990s of a "Let's eat two meals a day" campaign. The rise of Kim Jong Il as a successor to his father, Kim Il Sung, was presaged by cryptic references in news articles to the "party center," which turned out to be Mr. Kim.
Of course, many of the messages are far from oblique. John Bolton, the U.S. undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, was blasted by KCNA last year as "a beastly man bereft of reason" and a "bloodsucker." The news agency said Mr. Rumsfeld's prediction that Kim Jong Il's dictatorship will end someday was the "shrill cry of a psychopath on his deathbed."
The world as seen by North Korea's official press is a place of nearly unremitting hostility to Pyongyang. Conflict with the U.S. always seems imminent, and the wounds of the Japanese colonial occupation of Korea, which ended in 1945, are still fresh. The world is also a place of magic, omens and fantastic claims. One December KCNA dispatch told of the development of a "medicinal stone" that "prevents the aging of the human body." Another KCNA report claimed that Koreans used an airship -- "a bird-shape flying car" -- in military campaigns starting in 1592.
Reports from KCNA reach the world through an office building in Tokyo that is headquarters to the Korea News Service, an organization run by pro-Pyongyang Koreans in Japan. The news service receives KCNA stories via satellite and e-mails them to media outlets ranging from CNN to the Associated Press and Bloomberg News. The service also runs a Web site that posts KCNA dispatches in English, Korean and Spanish -- the latter apparently aimed at the Cuban market.
During an interview in a dingy conference room with gilt-framed portraits of Kim Jong Il and his father, and beige chairs covered with soiled white antimacassars, Li Yang Su, the Korea News Service's director of business management, said: "Our mission is to send out North Korea's views to the world as precisely as possible."
The 62-year-old Mr. Li, dressed in a navy blue velvet jacket, blue twill pants, blue shirt and a black tie, is a 21-year veteran of the news service. He is an ethnic Korean, born in Japan, and longtime fan of classic American movies. Among his favorites, he says, "Citizen Kane," the Orson Welles classic based on the life of newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst.
"The news from Western countries and Japan is all the same. Sometimes it's twisted," said Mr. Li. "We want to correct it." Asked about KCNA's role in propagating socialist ideology and Juche, North Korea's near-religion of self-reliance, Mr. Lee agreed that "promoting socialism is very important" for the North Korean press.
Then, he said: "Let's change the subject. Do you play any sports?"
Jang Hae Song, a former North Korean journalist who fled the country and came to South Korea in 1996, says Kim Jong Il himself closely supervises state-run media outlets, issuing monthly guidelines for coverage, and ordering journalists to either ratchet up or tone down criticism of foreign governments. The North Korean press imbues Mr. Kim with near supernatural powers befitting his quasidivine status. One report from 1999, headlined "Wonders of Nature," reported that Mr. Kim's presence cleared rain clouds and brought out the sun.
Some Westerners who have worked in North Korea say journalists there feel they are pretty much like their counterparts in other societies. "The way they see it, everyone produces propaganda," says Andrew Jardine, who worked in North Korea for more than a year as a proofreader for the English-language weekly Pyongyang Times and other government publications. "They don't see it as different from the Western media."
朝鲜媒体变形记
来看看这些报导：朝核危机中的2003年是朝鲜"值得骄傲的胜利年"，这要感谢伟大领袖金正日的英明领导以及朝鲜"强大"的军事后盾。
在其他新闻报导中，美国国防部长唐纳德?拉姆斯菲尔德(Donald Rumsfeld)是个"人渣"和"政治侏儒"，"布什(Bush)集团亡我之心不死，仍试图不惜任何代价对朝鲜半岛发动一场新的战争。"
什么是黑白邪恶？什么是江山一片红？唯看朝鲜官方通讯。
看朝鲜的新闻，就彷佛时光倒流到冷战的宣传年代，铺天盖地都是阶级对抗以及革命与反革命的斗争。平壤官方的朝鲜中央社(Korean Central News Agency, KCNA)去年报导，"如果美帝国主义及其走狗燃起一场新的战争，我们的军队和人民将给予他们全面毁灭性的打击。"
本周一是金正日的生日，为纪念这个一年一度的重大节日，官方通讯社加大了对金正日歌功颂德的报导。金正日今年62岁，不过一些人认为他可能还要更老点。一篇标题为"全世界向金正日表达深深敬意"的报导称，全世界人民"在向领袖金正日致以崇高敬意，歌颂他的不朽功勋。"
作为落后的政治喇叭和个人崇拜的宣传机器，保持著高昂斗志的朝鲜国家通讯社依然是平壤最重要的对外交流工具。它也是外部世界管窥朝鲜的最重要窗口，因为该国几乎没有什么海外外交使团，在汉城、东京和华盛顿都没有官方代表。
例如，美国总统布什提出，如果朝鲜放弃发展核武器，美国将与其签订一个书面的安全保证，朝鲜公众对此的最初反应就出自官方媒体。首先，朝鲜中央社的一篇评论文章称布什的提议是"可笑的"。之后，中央社援引外交部发言人的话称，朝鲜将"考虑"这个提议。这怎么解释？
美国和亚洲的情报分析员和学者小心翼翼地梳理朝鲜通讯稿的每一句话。他们试图从中寻找出从该国经济的健康状况到执政高层的权力斗争动态等信息的线索。而且他们还仔细观察朝鲜向其他国家传递的微妙信息。
在汉城，国防部和国家情报局全天跟踪朝鲜媒体。拉里?尼克什(Larry A. Niksch)是华盛顿国会研究服务(Congressional Research Service)负责外交、防务和贸易的政策分析师，他说，那是"因为朝鲜一直－－而且现在依然－－非常封闭，出现在朝鲜媒体上的东西就会在美国和世界他地方被仔细解读。"下周将在北京举行朝鲜核武器六方会谈，朝鲜媒体受到更密切关注。参加会谈的有美国、韩国、日本、中国、俄罗斯和朝鲜。
尼克什说，1990年代早期朝鲜媒体发起了"一日两餐"的宣传攻势，这是该国高度集中的计划经济在动摇以及粮食供应在减少的最早线索。金正日接替其父金日成成为朝鲜领袖的过程也在"党的核心"的新闻报导中有所暗示，这个"党的核心"就是金正日。
当然，很多信息完全是不公正的。美国负责军备控制和国际安全的副国务卿约翰?博尔顿(John Bolton)去年被朝鲜中央社斥为一个"丧失了理性的禽兽"，是一个"嗜血者"。中央社称，拉姆斯菲尔德所谓的金正日的独裁统治将在某天终结的预言是"他垂死的疯喊狂吠"。
在朝鲜官方媒体眼中，这个世界是一个对平壤充满无以复加的敌意的地方。与美国的冲突似乎永远都迫在眉睫，日本殖民统治朝鲜的伤痛依然历历在目。这个世界还是个充满魔幻、预言和想像的地方。中央社12月份的一篇专稿介绍了一种能"防止人体老化"的"药石"的发展。该社的另一篇报导还称，朝鲜人1592年开始就在军事攻势中使用了一种飞行器－－一个"鸟状的飞行车"。
中央社通过总部在东京的朝鲜通讯社(Korea News Service)向世界发送报导。朝鲜通讯社是一个由在日本的支持平壤的朝鲜人建立的一个组织。这家通讯社通过卫星接收朝鲜中央社的报导，再将这些报导通过电子邮件发给有线新闻网(CNN)、美联社(Associated Press)和彭博资讯(Bloomberg News)等媒体。该通讯社还有一个网站，用英语、朝鲜语和西班牙语发布朝鲜中央社的专稿，其西班牙语服务显然是针对古巴市场。
朝鲜通讯社业务管理负责人李阳素(Li Yang Su，音译)在一次采访中称，"我们的任务是尽可能准确地向世界传达朝鲜的观点。"采访是在一个悬挂著金正日和金日成镀金画像的邋遢会议室进行的，李阳素坐的米色椅子上的白色座套不是很干净。
62岁的李阳素身著一件海军蓝天鹅绒夹克、蓝色条纹裤、蓝色衬衣和黑色领带，他在这个通讯社已经工作了21年。他是出生在日本的朝鲜裔日本人，而且是经典美国电影迷。他说，他最喜欢的影片是"公民凯恩"，该片是奥森?威尔斯(Orson Welles)根据美国报业大亨威廉?鲁道夫?赫斯特(William Randolph Hearst)的生平拍摄的经典电影。
李阳素说，"西方国家和日本的新闻千孔一面。有时候它是扭曲的。我们想改正它。"当被问及朝鲜中央社在宣传社会主义意识形态和朝鲜自力更生的作用时，李阳素说，"宣传社会主义"对朝鲜媒体非常重要。
接著这个问题，他说："我们换个话题吧。你做运动吗？"
1996年从朝鲜逃到韩国的朝鲜记者Jang Hae Song说，金正日亲自监管其国有媒体，下达每月的报导指示，命令记者或者提高或降低批评外国政府的论调。
朝鲜媒体给神坛上的金正日带上了超自然的光环。1999年的一篇题为"自然奇迹"的报导称，金正日的出现令乌云让日。
一些在朝鲜工作的西方人称，那里的记者觉得他们和其他国家的记者很相似。安德鲁?贾尔迪内(Andrew Jardine)是英文周报《平壤时报》(Pyongyang Times)以及其他政府出版物的审稿人，他在那工作了一年多时间，他说，"在他们看来，每个人做的都是宣传报导。他们觉得西方媒体也不例外。"
