Why the Western media keeps getting North Korea wrong

[soryang]

Why the Western media keeps getting North Korea wrong
Western media's repeated blunders in reporting on North Korea show its continuing lack of understanding and expertise.

Se-Woong Koo Al Jazeera
6 May 2020

...In my five years on the English-language media scene, I have met not one Western reporter covering the Korean Peninsula who could speak Korean fluently. Whether a foreign language skill is imperative to have when reporting abroad may be debatable, but in the context of North Korea coverage, not speaking Korean means sidelining from the global conversation qualified experts who do not speak English - of whom there are many in South Korea.

Instead, their places are taken by the convenient English-speaking pundits, whose CVs reveal that most of them have no expertise related to North Korea; or by defectors whose suitability as commentators on the politics in Pyongyang or Kim's state of mind is compromised by inexperience or obvious political motives.

Had Western media made genuine attempts to engage with reputable North Korea experts in the South, many exaggerated rumours about the regime would not receive the attention that they do...

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/western-media-north-korea-wrong-200505155134971.html