This text was written as a part of NK TechLab, a mission of 38 North that serves as a central hub for ongoing investigation and evaluation into how North Korea makes use of expertise to serve and suppress its residents. To learn different analysis like this, go to NK TechLab right here.
Among the many many sources used to investigate North Korea is Korean Central Tv (KCTV), the principle, state-run tv channel. The channel carries protection of Kim Jong Un’s actions and key bulletins and choices from the Employees’ Social gathering, supplies updates on precedence financial initiatives, and airs historic documentaries and cultural fare corresponding to films, youngsters’s programming and training.
It is an necessary device in understanding North Korea right now, however it does not present the entire image of what North Koreans see on tv and what they be taught concerning the world. The nation has three different state-run tv channels that, whereas not as necessary for political evaluation, provide a broader vary of programming and create an alternative to boost our cultural understanding.
Till a decade in the past, most houses throughout the nation obtained solely KCTV, which was on air from 17:00 to round 22:00. Two extra channels had been out there to solely Pyongyang audiences. Nonetheless, starting round 2016, KCTV started broadcasting earlier (first to 15:00 and then to the present 09:00) and the nation started constructing a four-channel digital TV community that now seems to cowl a lot of the nation.
Actually, all the channels are state run and topic to overview by the Propaganda and Agitation Division, that means the programming nonetheless follows Employees’ Social gathering pointers and features a good dose of ideological content material. However the three extra channels provide programming that is lighter and fewer propaganda heavy. Furthermore, in contrast to KCTV, the three extra channels aren’t out there by way of satellite tv for pc, so are hardly ever seen outdoors of the nation.
I lately spent a weekend in South Korea close to the northern border and was capable of obtain these channels. Whereas three days of programming was not sufficient to give you any critical conclusions, my glimpse on the programming revealed a extra numerous vary of content material than seems on KCTV, together with a number of overseas movies and TV sequence. It was a useful reminder to myself that there are numerous sides of North Korean society we don’t have entry to that paint a extra nuanced picture of each day life. The next is a short overview of the three extra channels and a style of the content material I used to be capable of watch.
The Channels
Mansusdae TV is the oldest of the three extra channels. It has been out there in Pyongyang since December 4, 1983, and from launch has carried cultural programming, overseas movies and worldwide information. It initially started broadcasting solely on Sundays, however is now additionally on air on Friday and Saturday. 1
The station indicators on Friday and Saturday at 19:00 and broadcasts till 22:00. On Sundays its programming is cut up into two blocks, one from 10:00 to round 13:00 and the second from 16:00 to round 22:00. It’s the solely one of many channels to nonetheless broadcast in normal definition.
Sport TV is the most recent channel in North Korea, having been launched on August 15, 2015. At the time of its launch, it supplied three hours of sports-related programming every weekend evening, however that has now been expanded to 4 hours. Sport TV begins broadcasting at 18:00 on weekend evenings and closes at round 22:00. It’s out there in excessive definition.
Ryongnamsan TV was launched on September 5, 2012, to interchange the Korea Academic and Tradition TV channel that had been on the air in Pyongyang since 1997 (and even earlier since 1971 as Kaesong TV). It’s out there every weeknight from 18:00 to 22:00 and is broadcast in excessive definition.
Taken collectively, this implies North Korean houses have entry to two channels from Monday by Thursday (KCTV and Ryongnamsan TV), three on Friday (KCTV, Ryongnamsan TV and Mansudae TV), and three on Saturday and Sunday (KCTV, Mansudae TV and Sport TV).
Mansudae Tv
From an outdoors view, Mansudae TV is maybe the most fascinating of the three channels because it carries a bigger proportion of overseas leisure than the others. Korean Central Tv hardly ever carries overseas content material past sports activities, so an observer may get the impression North Korean TV is devoid of such programming. Nonetheless, based mostly on the pattern I watched, overseas programming is way more widespread on the three extra channels.
On Saturday, November 29, Mansudae TV started with a European Champions League soccer match between Liverpool and Actual Madrid. European soccer is recurrently broadcast on KCTV within the afternoon, however this match doesn’t seem to have been televised on that channel so it wasn’t a rerun. It was adopted by the 2021 Russian film “Лётчик” (The Pilot: A Battle for Survival).
Sunday morning programming included the 2016 Indian film, “Pulimurugan,” and the spotlight of the afternoon was the Disney/Pixar film “Ratatouille,” dubbed into Korean.
Little or no US content material is offered formally in North Korea, however Disney and Pixar films are the exception as their storylines are normally tame and have little objectionable materials. A number of can be found on DVD within the nation, however such films are by no means proven on KCTV.
The day completed off with episodes 19 and 20 of the 2015 Chinese language TV drama “于无声处” (Within the Silence). Like the opposite overseas broadcasts, this system was dubbed into Korean.
Between the overseas fare, Mansudae TV broadcast the form of small characteristic packages on nature, science and expertise and common data that make up a portion of the KCTV each day schedule. These filler packages are widespread throughout all channels and sometimes have an academic message and typically an underlying propaganda message as properly.
Sport Tv
Sport TV’s programming was notable for protection of sports activities not seen on KCTV.
On Saturday night, after a few sports-related propaganda options, the channel broadcast the third in a sequence of compilation packages of 2025’s high home sporting moments. That is notable as KCTV has a day sports activities block most days, however that is by no means stuffed with home protection. It appears that evidently North Korean TV is masking home competitors, however its broadcast is restricted to Sport TV.
On Saturday, November 29, the protection included a basketball match between Myohyang Commerce Bureau (묘향무역국) and Taehyung Commerce Steerage Bureau (대흥무역지도국) and a home swimming contest.
The primary attraction for Saturday night was a repeat of the Girls’s Underneath 17 World Cup soccer match between North Korean and El Salvador. The match was performed on November 5, and North Korea gained 5-0. It was an early victory on their option to turning into world champions. KCTV confirmed 4 later-stage matches, however this one had not been broadcast there earlier than.
Over the weekend, Sport TV additionally aired protection of the Males’s Water Polo Last from the 2025 World Aquatics Championships, which happened in July, a match from the World Desk Tennis Championships in Could and a sport from the FIBA Girls’s Asia Cup basketball event in August.
Ryongnamsan Tv
The schedule of the academic channel, Ryongnamsan TV, is filled with brief options on a various vary of topics. Many packages run round 5 to 10 minutes every. Some are based mostly on video sourced from abroad, however most seem to be domestically produced.
On Monday, December 1, night programming included packages on candy potato cultivation, find out how to make a wind turbine, find out how to calculate space, and environment friendly marine transport strategies.
One physics characteristic on the properties of sound waves was introduced by a home educator. This system “소리의 세요소” (The Three Components of Sound) was taught by Cling Music Hui, a trainer from Inhung Junior Center Faculty, in Pyongyang’s Moranbong District.
The channel additionally consists of overseas language studying packages. On Monday, three episodes of the “외국어학습시간” (International Language Research) program had been broadcast. Two targeted on English and one on Chinese language.
The primary of the English options was based mostly across the Disney film “Luca.” A five-minute clip from the film was broadcast within the unique English with no subtitles, then a number of phrases from the clip had been defined, after which it was proven once more with English subtitles.
The second English research program used clips from a Discovery Channel sequence known as “100 Best Discoveries” and lined drugs. Following that, a number of minutes from a Chinese language nature sequence had been broadcast and the format remained the identical, with phrases defined and subtitles added for a second airing.
Whereas programming from December 2 was not watched, a program information for the day broadcast on the finish of December 1 confirmed overseas language research packages can be aired for Russian and German. The Russian research was based mostly round a program known as The Deep Ocean and the German one the animated film “Ballerina.”
The Information
The 8 pm night information on KCTV is a very powerful program of the day on North Korean tv. It is used to make main bulletins and element occasion initiatives, and is the primary place Kim Jong Un’s actions are normally seen.
Each Ryongnamsan and Sport TV simulcast the bulletin, however it seems Mansudae TV solely carries it on Sunday evenings.
Within the two days of Mansudae that I watched, the TV schedule solely known as for the information to be broadcast on Sunday. That is possible because of the channel’s comparatively late begin time of 19:00 and its film and feature-heavy schedule. By the point the primary program begins airing on Friday and Saturday evenings, at round 19:10, there’s not sufficient time to run a film with out bumping into the night information. On Sunday evenings, broadcasts start at 16:00 making it a lot simpler to schedule the bulletin.
On November 30, the night information was preempted with a particular report on Kim Jong Un’s attendance at a ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of the KPA Air Pressure.
Mansudae TV additionally carries a 30-minute abstract of world information from the week simply earlier than the principle information on Sunday evenings.
Conclusion
And not using a a lot bigger pattern, it is troublesome to give you any main conclusions. Nonetheless, the entry ought to remind analysts and observers that the North Korean media panorama is broader than the entry supplied abroad.
