North Koreans receive news primarily through Korean Central Television, which broadcasts at 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. During the period leading up to the June 12 summit between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, the broadcasts did not reflect the diplomatic activity occurring abroad. Instead, programming focused on rice-planting season and farmers at work. Observers monitoring state media reported that North Koreans were kept largely uninformed about the summit and related meetings. When Kim met South Korean leader Moon Jae-in in April, international audiences watched live, while North Korea had no access to that coverage. After the summit, some footage appeared on state television, followed by additional content after meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
"Korean Central Television, the state broadcaster, is the only channel North Koreans get, and it's showing the farmers at work, he says. This leaves North Koreans largely in the dark about all the rushed diplomacy happening in the lead-up to June 12. "You can keep 25 million people completely in the dark. So the propaganda apparatus and the way the North Korean government tells different things to its people, and also restricts them from hearing things, is one of the things I was most interested in," says Martyn Williams, who records and watches North Korean state television every day from satellite TV, as part of his blog, North Korea Tech."
""North Korean TV news nowadays has mainly been about rice-planting season," says Chad O'Caroll, who monitors North Korean state media for his service, NKNews.org. "So it's a huge, huge difference. Seriously." Korean Central Television, the state broadcaster, is the only channel North Koreans get, and it's showing the farmers at work, he says. This leaves North Koreans largely in the dark about all the rushed diplomacy happening in the lead-up to June 12."
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