[USFK Forums] NK May Bar CNN in Retaliation for Documentary [Korea Times]

[C. Y. Lee]

[Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Monday, November 28, 2005] Here is an article of the Korea Times that appeared yesterday as follows:
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NK May Bar CNN in Retaliation for Documentary

The Korea Times, Sunday, November 27, 2005

By Seo Dong-shin, Staff Reporter

North Korea has indicated it may ban CNN media personnel from entering the country, apparently in retaliation for the U.S. cable news network’s recent airing of a documentary on the North’s human rights situation.

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the communist North’s official mouthpiece, issued a commentary Saturday accusing CNN of being manipulated by the U.S. administration. ``CNN broadcast video footage that distorted our independent and fair law enforcement without checking into any truth.

It was full of fabrications from A to Z in order to degrade the image of our republic,’’ the commentary said in response to the CNN documentary ``Undercover in the Secret State’’ that first aired two weeks ago.

The program included images captured inside the North, reportedly secretly taken and smuggled out by a North Korean defector. They showed scenes of a public execution as well as dissident movements in the hunger-stricken nation.

``That was a product of the nasty psychological warfare masterminded by the U.S. administration, to bring down our regime,’’ the North’s commentary went on. ``Last year, the U.S. engaged the Washington Post to spread rumors of experimenting on human bodies with poisonous gas, using so-called North Korean defector’s testimony.

The U.S. has, without fail, mobilized the media whenever it faces difficulty in pursuing a hostile policy against us.’’ The commentary also said that although CNN reporters have been allowed to visit North Korea several times, now CNN has ``dug its own grave,’’ whatever the reasons were.

North Korea occasionally accepts or even invites foreign reporters to their reclusive country, and has not been on peculiar terms with CNN until now. Ted Turner, founder of CNN, for example, visited the North last August.

During his two-day stay in Pyongyang, the media mogul met with the North’s vice foreign minister Kim Kye-gwan. Turner later proposed establishing a ``peace park’’ in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) bisecting the Korean Peninsula, and turning it into a U.N. protected World Heritage.

saltwall@koreatimes.co.kr 11-27-2005 17:26