As North Korea prepares to send leaflets over the inter-Korean border, Daily NK has learned that the country is preparing journalists from Pyongyang and even provincial newspapers to report on the event.
“A special team of journalists is being recruited from provincial news agencies to report [on the leaflets drop],” a North Hamgyong Province-based source told Daily NK today.
On June 20, North Korea’s Propaganda and Agitation Department ordered provincial newspapers to recommend journalists to join a special team to report on the leaflets drop near the 38th Parallel, according to the source.
The Propaganda and Agitation Department reportedly told the newspapers to recommend skilled journalists who are “ideologically fit.” Party officials at newspapers in Kaesong, South Hwanghae Province and Kangwon Province, among other areas, proceeded to investigate the backgrounds journalists among their staff to participate in the special team.
“The Propaganda and Agitation Department ordered that lists of journalists be submitted by June 23. The newspapers sent over the lists and even detailed reporting plans to the department by June 22,” the source told Daily NK. “All of the newspapers are now just waiting for additional orders from the department.”
Reports from inside the country indicate that North Korea plans to send leaflets over the border with balloons, drones and other methods between June 25 and June 28. Daily NK understands that Kim Yo Jong, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s sister, ordered the leaflet drop and that the Propaganda and Agitation Department is taking the lead in working out the details.
North Korean state media reported yesterday that Kim Jong Un had ordered that all plans to take military action against South Korea be “postponed,” but the newspapers were not given additional orders relating to the postponement – at least as of this morning, the source added.
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