hankyoreh

The main press center at the KINTEX conference center in Goyang

The global press is getting excited about covering the inter-Korean summit on Apr. 27.

According to figures provided by the Blue House on Apr. 24, so far a total of 2,850 domestic and foreign reporters have applied to cover the event. The foreign press is represented by 869 individuals from 184 media organizations in 40 countries – double the number during the first two summits in 2000 (543) and 2007 (376). And the media presence is expected to keep growing, since media credentials will also be available at the scene of the summit.

The foreign press appears to be banking on the inter-Korean summit being a huge event, with the expectation that this will be some of the biggest news to ever come out of Korea. Some foreign reporters describe developments as a rollercoaster, with predictions about war that were sparked by North Korea’s nuclear tests last year giving way to a new spring on the Korean Peninsula. The foreign press is also keeping close watch on the North Korea-US summit, which is set to follow the inter-Korean summit.

“All eyes are on the inter-Korean summit because the amount of progress in the denuclearization plan here will set the course for the North Korea-US summit,” said Hwang Ung-jae, chairman of the Seoul Foreign Correspondents Club.

There has been a series of stories by foreign reporters who have paid advance visits to Panmunjeom, where the inter-Korean summit will be held. On Apr. 24, over 40 foreign reporters who arrived in South Korea over the weekend joined a press tour of Panmunjeom organized by the preparatory committee for the inter-Korean summit and visited the Inter-Korean Transit Office at Dorasan, Imjingak and the village of Daeseong-dong (also called Freedom Village).

On Apr. 10 and 18, groups of more than a hundred foreign correspondents also visited Panmunjeom to cover the story. One of the most notable foreign journalists to visit South Korea is Christiane Amanpour from CNN. The daughter of an Iranian father and a British mother, Amanpour has risen to global fame as a war reporter by covering conflicts around the world, including the Gulf War and the civil war in Bosnia. While CNN normally just has one full-time journalist in Seoul, its bureau chief, Amanpour is part of more than 20 CNN journalists who are here for the summit.

Business-focused media outlets such as Reuters, Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal have also been redirecting reporters based in Japan and China to South Korea. Instead of limiting summit coverage to political news as in the past, these reporters are filing several analysis pieces and other stories every day, since the summit could have a major impact on the economy and the financial markets in both the short and long term.

One foreign correspondent for a business-focused media outlet predicted that there would be vigorous discussion of investment in economic cooperation and said that all available reporters were gearing up to tackle the topic from all angles.

The country with the most news coverage of the summit is Japan, where the media has devoted a huge number of reporters to the topic and has been running stories around the clock. Broadcasters including NHK and Asahi TV have been the quickest to take action. Asahi TV has boosted its full-time presence in Seoul from the usual five to more than 30.

“What Japan wants from this summit is the repatriation of the Japanese abducted by North Korea. If the abductees are brought home, Abe will gain a reprieve from his political crisis. The families of the abductees regard this as their last chance,” said a source in the Japanese press, when asked about the mood on the ground in Japan.

Some of these reporters will be attending their third inter-Korean summit, following the first two in 2000 and 2007. These include Choe Sang-hun, Seoul correspondent for the New York Times, and Cho Joo-hee, Seoul bureau chief for ABC.

“The inter-Korean summit is a huge event,” Cho told the Hankyoreh in a telephone interview.

“On a personal level, it’s also meaningful and gratifying to be covering the third summit. In the US, the prevailing view is still doubt about whether the North Korea-US summit with actually be pulled off. I feel a heavy responsibility to cover the story well so that Korea experts in the US can draw accurate conclusions about North Korea.”

Press centers for the summit are being set up at Panmunjeom and the KINTEX conference center in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province. The main press center at KINTEX contains an international broadcasting center and a 1,000-seat briefing room the size of an American football field.

By Moon Hyun-sook, media correspondent and Noh Hyung-seok, staff reporter

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