Voice of Korea () is the

international broadcasting International broadcasting, in a limited extent, began during World War I, when German and British stations broadcast press communiqués using Morse code. With the severing of Germany's undersea cables, the wireless telegraph station in Nauen was ...

service of

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...

. It broadcasts primarily

information Information is an abstract concept that refers to that which has the power to inform. At the most fundamental level information pertains to the interpretation of that which may be sensed. Any natural process that is not completely random, ...

in Chinese,

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

, Russian, Japanese and

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

. Until 2002 it was known as Radio Pyongyang. The interval signal is identical to that of

Korean Central Television Korean Central Television (KCTV; ) is a television service operated by the Korean Central Broadcasting Committee, a state-owned broadcaster in North Korea. It is broadcast terrestrially via the Pyongyang TV Tower in Moranbong-guyok, Pyongy ...

History

The origins of Voice of Korea can be traced to 1936 and the radio station JBBK. Operated by the occupying Japanese forces, JBBK broadcast a first and second program as part of Japan's radio network that covered the

Korean Peninsula Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic ...

from

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the Capital city, capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the North Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea ...

. The station was founded in October 1945 as Radio Pyongyang, and officially inaugurated programming on the 14th, with a live broadcast of the victory speech of

Kim Il-sung Kim Il-sung (; , ; born Kim Song-ju, ; 15 April 1912 – 8 July 1994) was a North Korean politician and the founder of North Korea, which he ruled from the country's establishment in 1948 until his death in 1994. He held the posts of ...

when he returned to

Pyongyang Pyongyang (, , ) is the capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is known as the "Capital of the Revolution". Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. According to the 2008 populat ...

at the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. The first foreign broadcast was in Chinese on 16 March 1947. Japanese-language broadcasts began in 1950, followed by English (1951), French and Russian (1963), Spanish (1965), Arabic (1970), and German (1983). By 1960, Radio Pyongyang broadcast 159 hours of programming every week. In 1970, weekly broadcasting hours totaled 330 hours and by 1980, 597 hours. In 1990 weekly broadcasting time fell to 534 hours per week, 529 in 1994, and 364 in 1996. In 2002, the station was renamed Voice of Korea.

Programming

Unlike most international broadcasters, Voice of Korea does not broadcast an interval signal in the minutes leading up to the start of the transmission. It instead starts broadcasting the interval signal (the first few notes of the "

Song of General Kim Il-sung The "Song of General Kim Il-sung" ( Korean: 김일성장군의 노래) is a North Korean marching song composed by Kim Won-gyun in 1946. As a part of an ongoing cult of personality, the song praising Kim Il-sung, North Korea's "Eternal Presiden ...

") on the hour. A typical program line-up begins with the interval signal, followed by the station announcement "This is Voice of Korea". After the announcement, the

national anthem A national anthem is a patriotic musical composition symbolizing and evoking eulogies of the history and traditions of a country or nation. The majority of national anthems are marches or hymns in style. American, Central Asian, and Europea ...

, "Song of General Kim Il-sung" and "

Song of General Kim Jong-il The "Song of General Kim Jong-il" () is a marching song from North Korea. It was composed by Sol Myong-sun(설명순,1936-2012) and the words were written by Sin Un-ho(신운호,1941-March 24,2020) in 1997. The song praises the " Eternal Genera ...

" are played. The songs are followed by a news broadcast consisting of

Korean Central News Agency The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) is the state news agency of North Korea. The agency portrays the views of the North Korean government for both domestic and foreign consumption. It was established on December 5, 1946 and now features onli ...

items with small adjustments for the radio. If there are any items about Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il or Kim Jong-un, these are the top bulletins. On the station's website, Kim Jong Un's full name is used whenever he is mentioned in a story, and his name appears in font larger than the rest of the story's text. The news items are typically one day behind the news of the domestic service Korean Central Broadcasting Station. The news is followed by music and an excerpt from Kim Il-sung's memoirs ''

With the Century ''Reminiscences: With the Century'' () is the autobiography of Kim Il-sung, founder and former president of North Korea. The memoirs, written in 1992 and published in eight volumes, retell Kim's life story through his childhood to the time of ...

''. After the memoirs, there is more music and feature stories, sometimes followed by an editorial. The 57-minute broadcast concludes with frequency information and a sign-off message. In the past, the station broadcast coded messages to North Korean spies. This practice ended with the 2000 June 15th North–South Joint Declaration. In 2006, Voice of Korea started broadcasting on 11545 kHz, the same frequency as the former Lincolnshire Poacher numbers station. While it is unknown whether this was an intentional effort to interfere with Poacher's propagation or an accident, it is not unknown for Voice of Korea to unintentionally jam its own signal by transmitting programmes in different languages simultaneously on the same frequency.

Broadcasting

Voice of Korea broadcasts on HF or

shortwave radio Shortwave radio is radio transmission using shortwave (SW) radio frequencies. There is no official definition of the band, but the range always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (100 to 10 m ...

frequencies, as well as on

medium wave Medium wave (MW) is the part of the medium frequency (MF) radio band used mainly for AM radio broadcasting. The spectrum provides about 120 channels with more limited sound quality than FM stations on the FM broadcast band. During the dayti ...

for broadcasts aimed at neighboring countries. Some frequencies are well out of the

ITU The International Telecommunication Union is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for many matters related to information and communication technologies. It was established on 17 May 1865 as the International Telegraph Union ...

-allocated shortwave broadcast bands, making them less susceptible to interference and less likely to be listenable on older receivers. Recently, it has increased the share of satellite broadcasting. Most of the broadcasts are transmitted from the Kujang shortwave transmitter site (five 200 kW transmitters), approximately 25 km from the city of Kujang. () A transmitter site in

Kanggye Kanggye () is the provincial capital of Chagang, North Korea and has a population of 251,971. Because of its strategic importance, derived from its topography, it has been of military interest from the time of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). His ...

(also five 200 kW) is used as well. A site in Pyongyang (10 transmitters of 200 kW) is also in use. On occasion, Voice of Korea has missed its regular service. The interruptions have not been explained by Voice of Korea, but they are thought to be due to engineering works at the transmitter sites, faulty equipment or because of power outages. In 2012 they occurred when the country was facing one of its worst electricity shortages in years. The off-air periods also affect North Korea's own jamming signals designed to prevent reception of South Korean stations such as Echo of Hope, Voice of the People, and

KBS Hanminjok Radio KBS Hanminjok Radio () is a South Korean anti-communist propaganda radio channel of the Korean Broadcasting System The Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) () is the national broadcaster of South Korea. Founded in February 1927, it is one of the ...

. Voice of Korea broadcasts on the

ChinaSat 12 ChinaSat 12 () communications satellite is wholly owned by China Satellite Communications, with part of its communications payload leased or rented by SupremeSAT, a Sri Lankan company to be marketed to potential users as ''SupremeSAT-I''. Once ope ...

satellite along with Korean Central Broadcasting Station (KCBS) and

. Currently (as of 11 March 2021) it seems, that several foreign language programmes are identical to each other, as exactly the same music is played at the same time, only the spoken and translated parts of the programme have been amended to match the respective program language. This could be monitored by switching from the German evening program on 6170 kHz from 19:00 UTC to the Spanish program on 7570 kHz at 19:00 UTC and back. It also seems, that the shortwave transmitter, which is used for the German language service, has a rather bad modulation. The transmitter for the Spanish programme however seems in better shape.

Schedules

This is a list of broadcasts of Voice of Korea by language as of August 2019. All times are in UTC.

Arabic

All Arabic broadcasts are transmitted from Kujang.

Chinese

All Chinese broadcasts are transmitted from Kujang.

English

All English broadcasts are transmitted from Kujang.

French

All French broadcasts are transmitted from Kujang.

German

All German broadcasts are transmitted from Kujang (frequency update: 03/2021, as announced on air, see als
ADDX

Japanese

All Japanese broadcasts are transmitted from Kujang, except 621 kHz and 6070 kHz broadcasts, which are transmitted from Chongjin-Ranam and Kanggye respectively.

Russian

All Russian broadcasts are transmitted from Kujang.

Spanish

All Spanish broadcasts are transmitted from Kujang (frequency update: 03/2021, as announced on air, see als
ADDX

References

Works cited

External links

*
Some excerpts of North Korean coded messages broadcast by Radio Pyongyang for secret agents with explanations
!-- www.246.ne.jp moved to www.abiweb.jp -->
Archive of English Language Broadcasts
{{Media specialized on news and/or analysis about North Korea International broadcasters Radio stations in North Korea North Korean propaganda organizations Propaganda radio broadcasts Radio stations established in 1945 1945 establishments in Korea Shortwave radio stations