AP denies Pyongyang bureau under North Korean control

By HADAS GOLD | 

The Associated Press is pushing back on a report its bureau in North Korea is nearly completely controlled by the North Korean government.

In a lengthy article for NKNews.org, Nate Thayer, a former AP stringer, reports that an internal draft agreement between the AP and North Korea’s state media outlet the Korea Central News Agency, more or less gives KCNA complete power over the bureau, its staff and its work.

Anonymous staff members in the bureau, established by the AP in 2012, told Thayer that “AP tries not to be a mouthpiece of North Korea, but it is basically impossible under the terms the bureau operates.” Certain staff members in the bureau are “hand-picked” by the North Koreans. Thayer also notes that no stories about the Sony hack, or the six-week disappearance of Kim Jong Un were written from the Pyongyang bureau.  

Additionally, ex-North Korean prisoners interviewed by Thayer say AP representatives cooperated in “coached and coerced statements,” interviewing them multiple times without ever publishing a story.

AP spokesperson Paul Colford vehemently denied the allegations made in the article, calling them “laughable.”

“No serious news organization would hand over the kind of business agreements, salary information and other payment documentation that Mr. Thayer sought. His latest articles from Dec. 24 are full of errors, inaccuracies and baseless innuendo,” Colford said in a statement.“The ‘draft agreement’ between AP and North Korea's KCNA news agency that he cites is remote from the final document.”

Colford also noted that Thayer, had once become “disgruntled over a distribution agreement with AP covering video he had shot in Cambodia” and that the editor of NKNews.org, Chad O'Carroll, told an AP news leader several days ago that he would not publish Thayer's article.

“It is regrettable that the website decided to reverse course on Dec. 24 because of a newly found ‘draft agreement,’” Colford said.

As for not publishing certain stories about North Korea from Pyongyang, Colford said it depends on where their bureau chief may be.

“To stipulate that our robust coverage must at all times be datelined in Pyongyang is ridiculous,” Colford said. “When our bureau chief is not in Pyongyang, as is sometimes the case, then the dateline shifts to Seoul, for example, where the bureau chief may be, or to Tokyo or elsewhere, as the reporting dictates.”

“AP does not submit to censorship. We do not run stories by KCNA or any government official before we publish them. At the same time, officials are free to grant or deny access or interviews," he added.

NKNews.org Director Chad O'Carroll said in a statement that the AP is ignoring the content of Thayer's piece.

"It is unfortunate that the AP are ignoring to address the content of Mr. Thayer’s story and instead focusing on separate issues. If, as Mr. Colford suggests, there are differences between the draft agreement and what was actually signed, AP should clarify those differences publicly," O'Carroll said. "NK News has requested clarity on details of operations from AP several times, but received no substantive responses."

This post has been updated to include the statement from NKNews.org.