North Korea has launched a sweeping ideological campaign targeting its own journalists in October 2026, timed to the 80th anniversary of the Korean Journalists’ Union. Reporters must now set year-end loyalty pledges and speak at mandatory discussion sessions. In Ryanggang province, journalists at the provincial party newspaper say the sessions now eat up more time than actual reporting.
“After the union’s 80th anniversary meeting in Pyongyang on Oct. 9, an urgent directive came down from the center,” a source in Ryanggang province told Daily NK on Tuesday. “It ordered the union’s Ryanggang provincial committee and the Ryanggang Provincial Daily to launch an ideological campaign.”
Founded in 1946, the Korean Journalists’ Union is the state-controlled body to which all North Korean journalists must belong. It operates under the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) and enforces the party line across North Korean state media. The Ryanggang Provincial Daily is the province’s official party newspaper, a regional counterpart to Rodong Sinmun, the WPK’s flagship daily.
The directive tells media workers to review the achievements and lessons of the press sector over the past three years. It also orders them to pledge year-end goals in line with the policy direction set at the Ninth Party Congress in February 2026. Each newsroom must then draw up concrete plans for reaching those goals.
Pyongyang has sent an eight-page standard lecture text to units under the provincial journalists’ union and to every department of the newspaper, the source said. The text stresses that “starting every task with ideological work is the best strategy” for reaching the party’s goals quickly. It also calls on journalists and media workers to wield “the power of the pen” and become standard-bearers who create the spirit of the times.
The language echoes the broader push since the congress to make Kim Jong Un’s ideology the sole guiding doctrine of the WPK. That campaign has already brought mandatory study sessions to officials across Ryanggang province earlier this year.
Korean Journalists’ Union directive orders 80% of staff to speak
The center ordered the newspaper’s politics, economy, culture and rural affairs departments to hold intensive discussion sessions over about two weeks in October. Pyongyang even dictated the official title of the sessions word for word. It reads: “On becoming media workers who create the spirit of the times by upholding the great, ever-victorious history of the Workers’ Party of Korea with even greater skill.”
To keep the sessions from becoming a mere formality, more than 80% of the journalists in each department must take the floor. Each speaker has to present year-end goals along with specific plans for meeting them. Anyone who skips the sessions or seems passive or half-hearted will be recorded separately and reported to higher authorities.
That threat carries real weight under Kim Jong Un’s tightening political control. Earlier this year, a provincial party official in North Hamgyong province was arrested after mistakenly quoting Kim Il Sung during a lecture on Kim Jong Un’s ideology.
Ryanggang journalists are now complaining of severe fatigue and pressure on top of their regular workload. Reporters at the provincial newspaper spend more time preparing for the sessions than gathering news. Some have even worked through the night to write pledges and speeches built around slogans handed down from Pyongyang.
“With the end of the year approaching, there’s already plenty of reporting and writing to finish,” the source said. “Now the ideological sessions have piled on top of that, so the burden on journalists and media workers is considerable.”
“Because of the strict order that more than 80% of each department must speak, everyone is too busy preparing for the sessions to think straight,” the source added.
The campaign mirrors the question-and-answer ideological review sessions that have swept North Korean institutions since the party congress. It underscores how Kim Jong Un’s government continues to tighten its grip on the press and the country’s wider propaganda apparatus.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
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October 28, 2026 at 07:58PM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)