This undated file photo shows the Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Dec. 30 (Korea Bizwire) — South Koreans will be able to easily read the Rodong Sinmun, North Korea’s main newspaper, at designated facilities and major public libraries, starting Tuesday, according to the unification ministry.
The public will be able to easily access the Rodong Sinmun, like general publications, at around 20 facilities, as the newspaper is now being classified as “general materials” not as “special” ones, the ministry said.
In South Korea, public access to the Rodong Sinmun, along with other North Korean publications, was restricted as it was classified as “special materials” under the spy agency’s guidelines on concerns that it includes content praising and promoting the North Korean regime.
Previously, people were able to read the Rodong Sinmun at designated facilities, such as the ministry’s information center on North Korea, only after their identity and purpose for accessing the content were verified.
But with the lifting of such restrictions, South Koreans will be able to easily access the paper version of the Rodong Sinmun. Still, online access to the newspaper’s website will continue to be banned.
During the unification ministry’s policy briefing on Dec. 19, President Lee Jae Myung said a ban on public access to North Korean publications amounts to “treating the public as those who can fall for propaganda and agitation” by the North.
“The government will continue to expand public access to North Korean information by enabling the people to freely access it and assess and judge the North’s situation based on their mature level of consciousness,” Vice Unification Minister Kim Nam-jung told reporters Tuesday.
In a related effort, the government will push to lift restricted online access to around 60 North Korean websites, including that of the Korean Central News Agency, the North’s state-run news agency, the ministry said.
Under the Information and Communications Network Act, the government can restrict the public’s online access to information related to activities banned under the national security law after deliberations by the media communications commission.
Meanwhile, the ministry said it will “comprehensively” consider whether to lift South Korea’s unilateral sanctions on North Korea imposed in 2010 under the former Lee Myung-bak administration.
The so-called May 24 sanctions include the suspension of most trade and economic exchanges with North Korea and the disapproval of fresh investment in North Korea. The measures were imposed to punish the North for its deadly torpedoing of the South Korean warship Cheonan in March 2010.
The ministry said in 2020 that the May 24 sanctions lost their effectiveness and do not hinder inter-Korean exchanges any longer, but has not officially announced the lifting of such measures.
(Yonhap)
