hankyoreh

the second in command of the North Korean military and General Political Bureau Chief and Kim Yang-gon

North Korean state-run news outlets referred to South Korea by its official name “Republic of Korea” in reporting the staging of senior-level inter-Korean talks.

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) used the official title in an Aug. 22 report on the two sides’ meeting at Panmunjeom.

“Comrade Hwang Pyong-so, head of the general politburo of the Choson People‘s Army, and Comrade Kim Yang-gon, central of the Workers’ Party of Choson central committee, will be holding emergency discussions at Panmunjeom on the afternoon of Aug. 22 with Blue House National Security Office chief Kim Kwan-jin and Minister of Unification Hong Yong-pyo of the Republic of Korea in connection with recent events,” the report said.

The Korean Central Television network and Pyongyang Broadcasting also used the term “Republic of Korea” in reporting on the emergency discussions.

The use of the country’s official name with the titles of South Korean participants in the discussions is highly unusual. In the past, North Korean news outlets have only used the name “Republic of Korea” in connection with inter-Korean summits or when quoting South Korean remarks or documents.

South Korean government officials have typically been referred to instead as the “South Choson [Korea] puppets,” a reference to their perceived control by the US.

Some observers suggested the outlets’ use of the term “Republic of Korea” may have been a move by authorities in Pyongyang to attach significance to the senior-level meeting.

After one day of using the official name, North Korea went back to “puppets” to describe the South Korean government in a statement by authorities the same day and a piece in the Rodong Sinmun newspaper the following day, with references to the “military provocations of the South Choson puppets,” suggests the use of the official title was an unusual and temporary move.

Authorities and media in South Korea rarely use the official title “Democratic People‘s Republic of Korea” to refer to North Korea either. But English-language documents for international institutions such as the UN, which both sides joined simultaneously in 1991, refer to them by the official titles of “Republic of Korea (ROK)” and “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).”　

By Kim Oi-hyun, staff reporter 　

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]