Puneet Varma (Editor)

NK News

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Type of site
  
News website

Editor
  
Chad O'Carroll

Commercial
  
Yes

Available in
  
English

Website
  
www.nknews.org

Registration
  
Optional

NK News is an American subscription-based website that provides news and analysis about North Korea. Established in 2011, it is headquartered in Washington, D.C. with reporters in Seoul, New York City, and London. Reporting is based on information collected from recently returned western visitors to North Korea, stories filed by the Korean Central News Agency, interviews with defectors, and reports published by NGOs and western governments. The site's editor is Chad O'Carroll, who has written on North Korea and North Korea issues for The Telegraph.

Contents

In 2013 the site introduced a soft paywall.

Regular features

  • Ask a North Korean: a forum whereby readers can submit questions about daily life in North Korea which are answered by a panel of four defectors. The column covering Jang Song-thaek's execution received particular attention.
  • Expert Survey: in which various Korean and Western experts on the politics, economics and history of North Korea provide answers to a questionnaire covering various aspects of North Korea's current situation and future prospects.
  • Defector Survey: asking various North Korean defectors about daily life inside the DPRK and their opinions on subjects such as tourism in North Korea, foreign aid and the things that defectors miss most after leaving.
  • Essays by Dr. Andrei Lankov: Andrei Lankov writes regular essays on various aspects of north Korea's culture, society and economics.
  • Monique Macias' memoirs: Monique Macias, daughter of Francisco Macias Nguema was sent to North Korea with her brother, and grew up in the country. She wrote a series of articles for NK News giving her perspectives.

    • In 2015, NK News held a Kickstarter fundraising drive to pay to send an investigative journalist to the China-North Korea border. The reporter is expected to provide regular dispatches from the region over the coming months.

    Data services

    As well as functioning as a news outlet, NK News also provides subscription-based data analysis tools designed for use by experts. These include the North Korea Leadership Tracker, the Ship Tracker, Leading Indicators and KCNA Watch.

    Media coverage

    NK News gained international headlines in November 2012 for its "North Korean Leadership Tracker," which presents a graphic visualization of every event Kim Jong-il and son Kim Jong-un have attended since 1994. The following year, NK News was credited with breaking news of a purported North Korean "strike plan" against U.S. targets, based on analysis of a photo published by North Korean media, and the site was subsequently named by KTXL news anchor Paul Robins as his "pick of the day."

    Other scoops include the identification of Kim Jong-Un's $7m yacht and images proving the date of the 2014 Pyongyang apartment collapse. NK News stories have been cited by USA Today, Österreich, Business Insider, and others.

    Since 2014, NK News also operates a content syndication agreement with the Guardian, with various articles being published on the Guardian NK website.

    Controversies

    In early 2014, NK News was partially blocked by the government of South Korea, ostensibly for violating the nation's "National Security Law," a censorship regulation that prohibits some reports originating from North Korea.

    In November 2014, NK News published a series of accusations by the former Associated Press stringer Nate Thayer, suggesting that the AP bureau in Pyongyang had signed secret agreements with the North Korean government that compromised its journalistic independence and integrity. AP denied the reports, and said that Thayer was merely a disgruntled former employee.

    References

    NK News Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA