From North Korea, a major political gathering is going on there. It's called the 7th Congress of the Worker's Party of Korea and it's a rare event. The last time this meeting took place is 36 years ago. This event brought more than 3400 party members to the North Korea's capital, Pyongyang. It started on Friday and doesn't have a formal end day though it's expected to last a few days. Supreme leader, Kim Jon-Un, who heads up the communist state, didn't announce any major policy changes in his 3 hour speech. But he did outline a 5 year plan to help his nation\'s struggling economy. Increasing call output, automating jobs in factory and mechanizing farm were all part of it. He also discussed the need to generate more electricity, promoting renewable energy and nuclear power. In Pyongyang, which has the highest standard of living in North Korea, many people only have electricity for few hours of the morning and the evening. So, what\'s like for international reporters to cover an event like this in a country whose government controls its media?
It's day 3 of the party congress and we've been waiting here in the parking lot of Y. Hotel for almost an hour. And we've seen a lot of government officials on their phones. Perhaps trying to figure out where's exactly the group of press is gonna be going today. We took a short drive through Pyongyang. A beautiful Sunday morning, didn't know where we're going and we've just arrived at People House of Culture. We don't know who's inside the building. But if you look at this road of shiny black Mercedes here and specifically look at the licence place number, that would indicate these are some of the highest level numbers of the Worker's Party of Korea. We've been told to bring all of our gear, including our backpacks inside. We've been given our passports as well for some kind of a security check. What happened? What happened? Program change. Program change? Where are we going? Back to hotel. Eat lunch and rest. Well, there you go. We're heading back to the hotel. The program has changed. After 3 hours of waiting at our hotel, we are all told to rush and gather in front of television for this. State TV broke in a special report which turned out to be the leader's full speech that he gave on Saturday to the Worker's Party Congress. It's been going on for well over 2 hours. Of course, we've already read the full transcript, it's the first 8 pages of the morning paper. Coverage on the front and back pages. If you're looking any major policy changes or announcements, you won't find them in the speech. The leader talked about North Korea history from 1980 until today. He did say this country won't use its nuclear weapons unless provoke first but we've heard that before. So, in the end, even though we're inside this country covering the Worker's Party Congress, the state controlled media continues to be our best and only source of information.
发表于 2016-5-11 08:00
| 
发表于 2016-5-12 19:10
|