North Korean Policy Elites - Defense Technical Information Center

Newspapers
The DPRK’s premier news outlet is the KWP’s Nodong Sinmun (Daily Worker), which
publishes six pages every day of the year. Its articles - especially the editorials and
commentaries - signal the direction of the Kim regime’s thinking. As one would expect, any
newspaper in which the editorials are the main attraction must be very boring indeed, and most
North Koreans avoid reading Nodong Sinmun, although they are required to study selected
articles as part of weekly political study sessions. Circulation is nominally rated at a million
copies, but newsprint shortages almost certainly prevent the paper from reaching this announced
circulation. In 2003, the newspaper became available on an intranet home page where cadres are
urged to read it first thing in the morning in order to “learn about the party’s intention and
demands in a timely manner.” 44
The newspaper has 12 departments, with names like Propaganda for Juche Theory, Party
History Cultivation, Revolution Cultivation, Party Life, Industry, Agriculture, International,
South Korea, and of course, Editorials. A sample of the content (for the randomly chosen date of
February 4, 2002 (Juche 91)) is illustrative: 45
• Page 1 is the editorial page. To the left and right of the title are displayed wise words or
slogans of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il. A commentary is spread across the top of the
page (“Let’s Be Fighters with an Iron Will”). Most of the articles on this page refer
explicitly to the teachings or activities of one of the Kims: Kim Jong-il sends letters of
New Year’s greetings to a list of foreign political officials, beginning with the Chinese,
then Russians, then Cubans, and ending with an official from the Communist party of
Brazil; the late Kim Il-sung receives a doctoral degree from and honorary membership in
the Belarus Academy of International Information and Technology (so does Kim Jongil);
Kim sends telegraphic New Year’s congratulations to a list of “second-tier” world
leaders; February is the month to show loyalty to Kim (his birthday is the 16 th ); a nationwide
farmer’s loyalty march has begun [they will converge on Pyongyang carrying letters
of loyalty].
• Page 2 is similar to page 1, with articles and photographs about the two Kims. On this
particular date, the entire page is given over to photographs of the two Kims under the
heading “Heaven-Created Military Generals Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il.”
• Page 3 is devoted to domestic stories: organizations that have reportedly reached or
exceeded their production goals, examples of heroic workers, and descriptions of how the
party’s correct policies are being realized throughout the country. On this date, the theme
44 “Relay Party’s Ideology and Intention to the Masses in a More Timely, Faster Way.” According to the article, one
model functionary, “after he read, first thing in the morning, the editorial that urged a great upsurge in building a
powerful state with the pride of having splendidly celebrated the 55 th anniversary of the Republic’s founding . . .
carried out political work by going out to many cooperative farms bustling with corn harvests and letting them
know the tasks suggested in the official party newspaper’s editorial.”
45 Nodong Sinmun may be read, when it finally arrives, in the Library of Congress’s East Asian Collection.
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