Comments on: Oi! Kim Jong Un! – How Not to Do Journalism in North Korea

By: シャネルライン

シャネルライン — Sat, 16 Nov 2013 01:24:34 +0000

ヴィトンバッグ価格

By: John Roblin

John Roblin — Wed, 18 Sep 2013 15:01:56 +0000

I think this article is a little unfair considering having already pointed out that Sparks covers the entire continent. Yes doorstepping is crude but when it’s impossible to have any respect for the country or its leader I think anyone would have done it, if only to say they had. It’s humorous and so adds much needed ridicule to an article about this crazy country. It also doesn’t hurt to pull some people in who might otherwise pay no attention in reading it.
While I accept some of what’s said here, when you have to deliver a 5 minute VT about the most insane country on the planet you don’t have anywhere near enough time to delve into the glimpses of humanity that lie beneath the veneer of nonsense that is North Korea. As you say, leave it to those who can.
I also see no problem with identifying your minders by number only. These people are essentially zombies, promoted to the privileged position of minders by their unswerving dedication to the state, whose behaviour is entirely to keep an eye on you to see you don’t step out of their boundaries. How then exactly can one hope to form any bond with such people? As such they cease to be normal human beings, their names (unfamiliar and difficult to pronounce as a foreigner don’t also forget) becoming irrelevant.

By: Nicolas Levi

Nicolas Levi — Mon, 05 Aug 2013 13:02:38 +0000

Good piece Andray,

This journalist is a common journalist. He wants more for less.
PS: Kim Yong Nam is signing accreditation letters of ambassadors on behalf of Kim Il Sung:)

Nicolas

By: Martin Alexander

Martin Alexander — Mon, 05 Aug 2013 08:27:06 +0000

Dear Andray, great description of how Western journalists assume that Pyongyang IS NK, how in response to state control of information they clutch at straws, and how they spin ‘news’ out of nothing.

You also point out that they also fail to look for the kind of detail and analysis that might bring actual insight.

For instance, there’s the assumption that all defectors and refugees are the same. But there’s a big difference between a farmer from the provinces who has escaped in search of work or food, and someone like Jang Jin-sung, the grandson of one of the DPRK’s 4 Marshals, the other three being Kim, Kim and Kim.

Every defector has a story to tell and motives in telling it, but Jang speaks with first-hand knowledge of the workings of the regime, of having been a favourite of Kim Jong-il and of having worked in the psychological warfare department’s 1 October building, whose name ironically echoes Orwell’s Room 101. He defected in disgust at the inside knowledge to which his position and job made him privy, but his agenda is transparency, not personal justification or gain.

Journalists might do well to visit to find material from authoritative defectors and from authentic clandestine sources from within the DPRK regime.

All the best,

Martin

By: Robin Tudge

Robin Tudge — Mon, 05 Aug 2013 07:38:25 +0000