“Any report on the North is either a scoop or a fiction.” This is the sub-headline of an article in Kwanhun Journal 2014-Spring. The quarterly, published by the Kwanhun Club, a fraternity of senior journalists, devoted its latest issue to the problem of reporting on North Korea.

We noticed yet another example of undesirable media practices ahead of the latest session of the North Korean legislature. Prior to the opening of the first session of the 13th term of the DPRK Supreme People’s Assembly in Pyongyang, most print and broadcast media outlets here reported on the imminent sacking of Kim Yong-nam as the chairman of the presidium of the SPA, the nominal head of state in the North. 

When the assembly closed last week, Kim, 86, was retained along with Prime Minister Pak Pong-ju, whose departure had also been predicted on account of the stagnant economy. The sources, who were “well-informed on North Korean affairs,” had predicted a top-level reshuffle in the Pyongyang hierarchy timed with the legislative event but were now making an ex post facto analysis that Kim Jong-un chose stability in the leadership structure after the turmoil of Jang Song-thaek’s purge last year.

Over the last few years since the death of Kim Jong-il and installation of his third son as the supreme ruler, we have had a spate of news stories on the North’s military affairs, economy and society. Every morning when we open a newspaper, and every evening when we turn on the TV, there is the young, chubby “chairman” emulating his grandfather Kim Il-sung in his attire and gestures on visits to army camps or industrial sites. Only President Park Geun-hye beats him in terms of frequency of media appearances.

There are more than 25,000 refugees from the North. Some of them were in “knowledgeable” upper-class positions in their society and many are still able to make telephone contacts with their relatives in the North. Besides, South Korean academia has over the past years produced a large number of North-Koreanologists, who are willing to pass on what they know to media audiences.

Thus, we have a broad supply of North Korea news. The problem is the quality of the commodity. North Korea is a closed territory that restricts all normal methods of communication. Moreover, the meager level of direct contact between the two Koreas that had developed from the late 1990s all but stopped when relations froze after the Cheonan sinking in March 2010.

On the other hand, the state intelligence apparatus, responsible for collecting, analyzing and controlling information from the North, has been functionally diminished. It has been exposed to political influence through leadership reshuffles that followed government changes ― from the right to the left and then back to the right. The politicization of the National Intelligence Service can be seen through its willing conveyance of intelligence to the National Assembly, which has of late become a major source of information on North Korea, accurate or not.

The purge of Jang Song-thaek spawned a variety of misinformation via domestic as well as international media. The extraordinary nature of the incident, reminiscent of the Stalinist era, invited papers and broadcasters worldwide to conjure up ghastly scenarios about the cause of the purge and the process of the execution. Stories in many different versions were recycled between media outlets.

A research team at KBS looked into a total of 293 news stories about Jang Song-thaek printed by five Seoul-based newspapers from Dec. 4-14. Half of them were purely speculative pieces, with only 24 percent providing direct quotes from one or more specific source. In the remaining “factual reports,” the KCNA and other official North Korean media outlets accounted for 26 percent of the sources, South Korean officials and politicians for 23 percent and North Korean refugees for 14 percent. The rest were the convenient “sources well-informed about North Korean affairs.”

The local media often danced to the tune of overseas reports of dubious origin. A Hong Kong-based newspaper, Wen Wei Po, reported that Jang was thrown alive to 120 hungry dogs, and most mainstream international media outlets quoted the story by citing “a Chinese state-backed journal.” Korean newspapers and networks picked up both this tale and an earlier version of the alleged traitor being shot with antiaircraft guns.

Ri Sol-ju, the present spouse of Kim Jong-un, is portrayed in the media as prominently as a top hallyu star these days. We recall the sex video story involving a leading North Korean entertainment group, of which Ri was formerly a member. The “scandal,” first reported by the Japanese Asahi Shimbun, led to speculations about Ri’s inevitable separation from Kim Jong-un. The well-informed sources were silent when she reappeared in public beside the young ruler after a monthlong absence.

Given the present state of relations between Seoul and Pyongyang, the domestic media has no qualms about making sloppy reports on the North. The usual whining of Pyongyang TV announcers about “extreme insults to their dignity” is something to be scoffed at. But is it really harmless for the press here to maintain a low standard of reporting on the North?

The greatest victims of compromised truth are the public and our policymakers, who are misled about the realities of the North as a state and a society. North Korea is a so-called rogue state in the axis of evil and is totally devoid of human rights concerns, yet the media should try to help its audience correctly understand the system and the structure of thought that have sustained this “living hell” for six decades. To be as informed as possible about the other side is to be best prepared for this confrontation.

In his commentary in Kwanhun Journal, professor Yim Eul-chul from Kyungnam University’s Institute of Far Eastern Studies wrote that South Korean media outlets should not hesitate to run corrections whenever they realize they have reported erroneously on the North. Jean Lee, former Associated Press bureau chief in Pyongyang, said in her contribution to the quarterly that the South Korean media is the vanguard of the world press in covering North Korea and that they bear the responsibility for doing so in a fair, objective and balanced manner.

Let us all pause for a moment from looking at the North and look back at ourselves.

By Kim Myong-sik

Kim Myong-sik is a former editorial writer for The Korea Herald. He served as director of the Korea Overseas Information Service after retiring as managing editor of The Korea Times. ― Ed.