NORTH KOREA: N.K media makes slip-ups during Clinton's visit

Radio Pyongyang and Korean Central Broadcasting Station had delays due to, as some observers speculate, plans to report former U.S. President Bill Clinton's arrival simultaneously

The Korea Herald
Wednesday, August 5, 2009

North Korean media outlets, whose outputs and their timing are strictly dictated by the state, made repeated blunders while reporting on former U.S. President Bill Clinton's two-day visit to the country, according to Yonhap News.

North Korea first reported Clinton's arrival around noon on Tuesday through Radio Pyongyang and the Korean Central Broadcasting Station, its state-run radio channels.

Both made on-air blunders, apparently due to miscommunication between the anchors and producers.

"Former U.S. Pres..." the male anchor of Radio Pyongyang started out in Korean. The broadcast was abruptly suspended mid-sentence, followed by nearly 10 seconds of silence and then five minutes of music before the anchor returned to say Clinton arrived in the North Korean capital.

The Korean Central Broadcasting Station, which also runs a noon news program, began the news program five minutes later than scheduled after airing background music.

Observers here speculate that the two stations erred while making last-minute coordination to report Clinton's arrival simultaneously.

Clinton departed Pyongyang with two freed American journalists on Wednesday, ending a brief visit of less than 24 hours. North Korean media said he and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il held "exhaustive" talks in exchanging a "broad" range of opinions.

The former president went into Pyongyang on a mission to obtain the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, two American journalists from San Francisco-based media group Current TV, who were arrested March 17 near the North Korea-China border while reporting on North Korean defectors. They were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor by the North on charges of illegal entry and hostile acts.

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the North's wire news agency, dispatched conflicting reports on Clinton's departure Wednesday.

The KCNA in its English-language report said just before 6 a.m. that he left North Korea, only to cancel the report shortly before 8 a.m.

After about 10 minutes, the KCNA reported again that Clinton had left Pyongyang. Other radio stations then followed suit.

Date Posted: 8/5/2009