Rodong Sinmun

Rodong Sinmun

Type	Daily newspaper
Format	Broadsheet
Owner	Workers Party of Korea
Publisher	Rodong News Agency
Founded	1945
Political alignment	Socialism, Juche, Songun
Headquarters	Pyongyang, North Korea
Official website	[1] English

Rodong Sinmun (English: Newspaper of the workers) is a North Korean newspaper and the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, published by the Rodong News Agency. It is the most widely read newspaper in the country. It was first published on November 1, 1945, as Chǒngro (정로; 正路; "right path"), serving as a communication channel for the North Korea Bureau of the Communist Party of Korea. It was renamed in September 1946 to its current name upon the steady development of the Workers' Party of Korea. Quoted frequently by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) and international media, it is regarded as a source of official viewpoints on many issues.

The English language version of Rodong Sinmun was launched in January, 2012.^[1]

Contents

Rodong Sinmun is published every day of the year and usually contains six pages.^[2] The editorial, where the Workers' Party expresses its view on different issues, and commands passed down by the party are usually regarded as the most important pieces of information.^{[citation needed]} There is typically no content in such areas as lifestyle, or TV, radio and other entertainment.^{[citation needed]} It is said that it has a hundred or so reporters, and the cut-off time for publishing articles is noon on the day before the scheduled publication date.^{[citation needed]} The newspapers are mainly delivered to organisations such as schools, cooperative farms and working places, but for those in high positions in the government or the party there can be individual deliveries.^{[citation needed]} However, it's now available in PDF format at its webpage.

On January 1, 2006, the paper printed a joint-editorial calling for the withdrawal of American troops from South Korea. While annual January 1 editorials are a tradition among the papers, this year's brought attention from Western media outlets, by calling for a "nationwide campaign for driving out the U.S. troops".^[3] The editorial made several references to Korean reunification.

Name

South Korean media often spell the name as Rodong Shinmun, due to the South Korean modification on the McCune-Reischauer romanisation for the 시 Hangul Jamo combination from si to shi. However, as used by North Korea and other international media, its official English name is Rodong Sinmun, just as it would be using the McCune-Reischauer system.

Rodong Sinmun is based on the North Korean pronunciation. In the South Korean standard, it becomes Nodong Sinmun.

See also

• List of newspapers in North Korea
• Media of North Korea
• Politics of North Korea
• Telecommunications in North Korea
• Gongren Ribao, the comparable Chinese publication

References

• 北朝鮮メディアガイド (North Korea Media Guide) (Japanese)

External links

• Rodong Sinmun on KCNA (Korean)
• Rodong Sinmun (Korean)
• Rodong Sinmun English