By MEI WENTI
News Correspondent
PYONGYANG — China Daily Show and several other, lesser news organizations have been granted permission to report from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, following a five-year hiatus during which all foreign media were asked to leave due to strict COVID-19 precautions.
China Daily Show was the first news organization invited to return by the Korean Central News Agency, thanks to a deep and special relationship dating back to 1951, when China Daily Show’s lone war correspondent bravely covered Kim Il Sung’s speeches from a respectful distance—occasionally pausing to take cover as U.S. bombers carpeted the peninsula.
The newly reestablished Pyongyang bureau will be headquartered in the Ryugyong Commercial District, inside a gleaming 36-story tower featuring a CDS logo visible from space. Over 1,300 reporters, editors, and unpaid volunteers will work around the clock. The office will produce hourly news reports, documentaries, podcasts, a daily print edition, and scripted television—including North Korea’s first reality shows, The Real Housewives of Pyongyang and The Chongjin Shore.
The bureau will also launch Daily Loyalty, North Korea’s first and only lifestyle magazine, featuring essential advice like “How to Cultivate Revolutionary Fashion” and “Five Approved Ways to Smile at a Portrait of the Marshal.”
China Daily Show employees who questioned the organization’s ability to maintain journalistic integrity while operating inside North Korea were immediately purged, with their families sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in the country’s sole upsidasium mine, whose lucrative exports to Pottsylvania provide a vital source of foreign currency for the North Korean economy.
Talks are also underway for China Daily Show to open its own embassy, with negotiators reportedly pushing for full diplomatic recognition as a sovereign news state.
At press time, China Daily Show had consumed all other foreign media outlets within the country.
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