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| ▲ This undated file photo shows the Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of North Korea's ruling Worker's Party. (Yonhap) |
(LEAD) NK newspaper-public access
(LEAD) S. Korea to permit public access to N. Korea's main newspaper
(ATTN: REWRITES headline, lead; UPDATES with more details throughout; CHANGES photo)
SEOUL, Dec. 26 (Yonhap) -- The unification ministry said Friday the government will take administrative steps to allow the public's easy access to the Rodong Sinmun, the main newspaper of North Korea's ruling Worker's Party.
In South Korea, public access to North Korean media and publications, including the Rodong Sinmun, is denied as they are classified as "special materials" due to concerns that they include content praising and promoting North Korea.
The unification ministry, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and other related government agencies held a consultative meeting earlier in the day to review ways to reclassify the Rodong Sinmun as "general materials," not as special ones under the spy agency's guidelines.
The participants at the meeting shared a consensus on the reclassification of the North's daily and the government will take necessary administrative steps from next week for the access, the unification ministry said in a notice to the press.
President Lee Jae Myung took issue with a ban on public access to the North's materials during last week's policy briefing by the unification ministry. Lee said the current ban amounts to "treating the public as those who can fall for propaganda and agitation" by the North.
The NIS earlier said it is "positively" reviewing steps to permit people to access North Korean materials to ensure the public's right to know and facilitate inter-Korean exchanges.
Currently, the Rodong Sinmun can be read at designated facilities, such as the ministry's information center on North Korea, only after an applicant's identity and purpose for accessing the content are verified.
But if the North's daily is reclassified as general information, South Koreans will be able to easily access its paper version. Still, online access to the newspaper's website will continue to be banned.
In a report to the National Assembly, the NIS said it will also "proactively" review whether to lift a ban on online access to North Korea-related websites.
The government has restricted online access to around 60 North Korean websites in accordance with the Information and Communications Network Act.
The act stipulates the government can restrict the public's online access to information related to activities banned under the national security law.
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