Media coverage of North Korea
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.
[2] 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".
[4] 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.
[13][14] Isaac Stone Fish of Foreign Policy and Christophe Deloire of Reporters Without Borders have described the country as an information "black hole".
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.
[37]: 117–18 Similarly, academic Hyung Gu Lynn has commented that some defectors embellish or fabricate their stories to sell books or lobby for regime change.
[58][59][60][61][62] Analyst Andrei Lankov commented that "some suspicions had been confirmed when Shin suddenly admitted what many had hitherto suspected", described Harden's book as unreliable, and noted that defectors faced considerable psychological pressure to embroider their stories.
[21] According to Damin Jung of NK News writing in 2017, South Korea had the potential to deliver accurate reportage, but was in fact the source of some of the most unreliable coverage.
[51] After the breakdown of talks with Donald Trump in Hanoi, Chosun Ilbo reported that Kim Jong Un's negotiating team had been executed or sent to labour camps.
[19] Moreover, the NIS has been accused of disseminating unverified information — such as the false report of the execution of General Ri Yong-gil — which supports the depiction of North Korea as a dangerous and unstable country.
[73] The National Security Act has historically been utilized to block South Koreans from viewing US-based news websites focused on North Korea.
[75][76] Korean studies analyst Andrei Lankov argues that the mainstream media suppresses stories about relative improvements in North Korea to avoid giving support to its government, or being perceived to do so.
Writing in the New Yorker Philip Gourevitch declared the grieving was obviously fake and indicative of the "madness of the Kims' grim dominion over North Korea," while Bill O'Reilly stated that mourners had been "paid in hamburgers.
"[86] Writing on CNN, John Sifton of Human Rights Watch claimed North Koreans were required by the DPRK government to cry and their "only alternative is to flee".
[87] However, wild expressions of grief — including extreme sobbing and fist pounding — are an accepted part of Korean Confucian culture and can regularly be seen in South Korea as well.
"[92] The Washington Post's Max Fisher has written that, in regard to North Korea, "almost any story is treated as broadly credible, no matter how outlandish or thinly sourced."
Fisher quoted Isaac Stone Fish of Foreign Policy joking that "as an American journalist you can write almost anything you want about North Korea and people will just accept it".
[81] Isaac Stone Fish himself admitted to painting a picture of North Korea in the grip of a drug epidemic with very little hard evidence to back it up.
[38] Over several years, many international news outlets have reported that North Korean media claimed that Kim Jong Il shot five holes in one his first time playing golf, or achieved some other improbable score.
[27] According to Gianluca Spezza of NK News, overused stereotypical labels applied to North Korea like "Hermit Kingdom", "secretive" and "unpredictable" make for "catchy headlines and are an easy sell".
[119] Analyst Andrei Lankov observed that "Tales of North Korean lunacy are never far from the front pages", but argued that the depiction of the regime as irrational is false and potentially disastrous.
[39] According to American historian Bruce Cumings, the same kinds of stories have been circulating since North Korea was founded, repeated endlessly like the footage of military parades.
[123] Several visitors have reported that the North Korea that they experienced was worlds away from the barren landscapes, starving people, and goose-stepping troops portrayed in the media.
[128][129] In June 2016, South Korea's financial markets were shaken by reports of the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which originated from a parody news website.
The film showed images, supposedly of the United States, with a stilted English narration making over-the-top claims about various depredations experienced in American society, such as people being forced to eat snow for sustenance.
[131] Following the 2013 arrest and execution of DPRK official Jang Sung-taek on charges of corruption, some media outlets reported he had been eaten alive by a pack of ravenous dogs on the orders of Kim Jong Un.
[132][133] After the reports began to gain traction, Trevor Powell, a Chicago-based software engineer, discovered the story had originated from the blog of a Chinese satirist.
In 2014, Brazilian humorist Maurício Cid created a fake YouTube channel called "Korea News Backup" that supposedly uploaded videos from North Korean television.
During the 2014 FIFA World Cup, the channel posted videos of North Korea defeating the teams from the United States, China, Japan, among others, and winning the championship in a 8-1 match against Brazil.
[136] Many international media outlets reported those videos as "government propaganda" from North Korea, such as Daily Mirror, Metro, CBC and Toronto Sun.
