March 19, 2024

About Source Index

KCNA Watch contains the largest archive of publicly accessible English and Korean language North Korean media output in the world.

The archive is updated in real-time, every day. Once an article is added to the system, it does not change. As such, DPRK efforts to ‘revise’ historical media output have no effect on the KCNA Watch archive.

As indicated in the sidebar widget, this site maintains separate archives for every publication title contained within the full text database.

Here is further information on the various sources included in KCNA Watch, and their respective archive sizes:

Full Text News Archives

  • KCNA.co.jp (English) – 1997 onwards
    KCNA.co.jp is an unaltered archive of DPRK news from the nation’s main news source, as it was when originally published. The KCNA.co.jp archive is only accessible and searchable outside of Japan via the KCNA Watch website.
  • KCNA.kp (English) – 2013 onwards
    KCNA.kp is a North Korea-hosted version of the DPRK’s main news agency website site, serving English and Korean language news and editorials to an international audience. The site was created in 2013, and has a relatively small database size due to DPRK authorities deleting tens of thousands of articles following the purge of Jang Song Thaek.
  • Pyongyang Times (English) – 2014 onwards
    The Pyongyang Times is an English language newspaper published for the expat community living inside the DPRK, in addition to visiting tourists. It has been publishing full text articles on the Naenara.com.kp portal since 2014.
  • Rodong Sinmun (English) – 2015 onwards
    The Rodong is North Korea’s main daily newspaper. While it has been published in PDF format for several years, in 2015 it started publishing English language full-text article translations that have been accessible at its North Korea-hosted website. This means that the archive of English language articles from the Rodong is relatively small, only going back to 2015.
  • Uriminzokkiri (English) – 2015 onwards
    Uriminzokkiri is a North Korea-affiliated news and information portal, hosted in China. While it often makes use of materials published at KCNA or in the Rodong as the basis of its reporting, it is produced specifically to target overseas Korean-speaking populations. As such, it’s English language output is extremely limited, with a database only going back to 2015.
  • Naenara (English) – 2015 onwards
    Naenara, or ‘My Country,’ is a multi-language DPRK media portal, hosted in North Korea. Besides hosting a number of periodicals and the Pyongyang Times news service, Naenara also publishes a daily selection of news articles in English.
  • KCNA.co.jp (Korean) – 1997 onwards
    KCNA.co.jp is an unaltered archive of DPRK news from the nation’s main news source, as it was when originally published. The KCNA.co.jp archive is only accessible and searchable outside of Japan via the KCNA Watch website.
  • KCNA.kp (Korean) – 2013 onwards
    KCNA.kp is a North Korea-hosted version of the DPRK’s main news agency website site, serving English and Korean language news and editorials to an international audience. The site was created in 2013, and has a relatively small database size due to DPRK authorities deleting tens of thousands of articles following the purge of Jang Song Thaek.
  • Uriminzokkiri (Korean) – 2012 onwards
    Uriminzokkiri is a North Korea-affiliated news and information portal, hosted in China. While it often makes use of materials published at KCNA or in the Rodong as the basis of its reporting, it is produced specifically to target overseas Korean-speaking populations. As such, it’s English language output is extremely limited, with a database only going back to 2015.
  • Rodong Sinmun (Korean) – 2015 onwards
    The Rodong is North Korea’s main daily newspaper. While it has been published in PDF format for several years, in 2015 it started publishing English language full-text article translations that have been accessible at its North Korea-hosted website. This means that the archive of English language articles from the Rodong is relatively small, only going back to 2015.

Periodicals

  • Rodong Sinmun – 2013 onwards
  • Tongil Sinbo – 2014 onwards
  • Korea Today – 2014 onwards
  • DPR Korea – 2014 onwards 
  • Foreign Trade – 2014 onwards
  • Kumsugangsan – 2014 onwards