The BBC is braced for a backlash from the North Korean government about the launch of a new service targeted at the country amid growing international tensions over its nuclear missile tests.

Francesca Unsworth, the director of BBC World Service, said the corporation was wary about launching the new North Korean service next month due to the likely opposition from the government but insisted the fragile political situation vindicated the move.

In an interview with the Guardian, she said: “We are reaching an incredibly febrile, dangerous atmosphere at the moment about that whole story, and isn’t it terrible for the people of North Korea that the only information that they getting about any of this is that woman who goes on North Korean television every night?

“We talked for many years about whether it was worthwhile doing something for the most in-need country of the world. This is right at the head of the BBC’s mission to bring independent news to people most in need – and Korea is the country most in need, followed by Ethiopia and Eritrea.”

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The service will launch just weeks after Donald Trump, the US president, threatened to unleash “fire and fury” on North Korea, which responded by announcing a detailed plan to fire missiles at the US Pacific territory of Guam.

Korean is one of 12 new language services being launched by the BBC over the next few weeks in the biggest expansion of the World Service since the 1940s. The expansion involves hiring 1,400 staff and is backed by £289m of funding from the government. Other services that are launching include Pidgin, which is spoken by 75 million people in Nigeria, Punjabi and Serbian.

Tony Hall, director general of the BBC, said the new services marked “the start of a new chapter for the BBC” and called the World Service “one of the UK’s most important cultural exports”.

However, Unsworth said the North Korean embassy in London had told the BBC “in no uncertain terms” that they did not want the Korean service to be launched.

The service will broadcast a half-hour radio programme daily, that will go out in the middle of the night so that, in the words of Unsworth, “people have the opportunity to listen under their bedclothes without telling the neighbours”.

On the potential reaction of North Korea, she added: “I met with the embassy here in London and they told us in no uncertain terms that they didn’t want us to launch this service. But one of the things I did say to them, and I think that this is important, is that we are not dissident radio.

“We are there to explain their perspective on this, we are not there to be the voice of opposition. But of course we are not on the side of governments, we are there on the side of people. That is our remit and it always has been.

Half the Korean team will be based in London with the other half in Seoul. At least one person in the team has a North Korean background.

Unsworth said it was a “tough challenge” trying to ensure the service reaches audiences in North Korea but pointed to research by KBS, the South Korean broadcaster, which found that a third of defectors from the country claim to have had access to foreign broadcasts. She also said evidence suggests that young people in North Korea are not as beholden to the regime as their parents and there is an appetite for learning information not provided by the government.



Unsworth joined BBC local radio in 1980 before rising up the ranks to become home news editor, then head of political programmes and head of newsgathering. She was named the boss of the World Service in 2014.

Unsworth said the World Service has become even more important due to the spread of fake news and the expansion of state-backed services such as Russia Today and Chinese news providers in Africa.

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“If RT were to criticise the Kremlin they would be off the air quite quickly, whereas if the BBC holds British foreign policy or anything up to scrutiny, well we are not going to be off the air,” she said. “The Foreign Office may be writing the cheques [to fund the World Service] but there is no question that they would be able to phone up and influence any editorial agenda that we are doing.

“In a way the ones that I am more worried about are the Chinese. The Chinese are investing in Africa for instance big time and and they really recognise that if you are going to put investment into infrastructure in these countries then the broadcasting media landscape goes alongside that.

“We are in danger of handing over the international media space to people who do not have the values of independence, free and fair without favour, and they are not impartial. All over the world I see our services operating in countries increasingly under pressure from governments clamping down on media freedom.”

World Service is expanding at a time when the BBC find itself under scrutiny about pay. The publication of the salaries paid to the BBC’s top earners led to criticism about a gender pay gap at the corporation while PwC, the accountancy firm, was hired to review apparent disparities between how much employees on the World Service are paid compared to those in the UK news department.

Unsworth refused to reveal the details about the review but said she would be writing to staff about it in the next few weeks. She added: “Obviously the staff think there is an issue or they wouldn’t have asked us to look at it. So we are looking at it.”

The World Service boss admitted that the publication of the list of salaries paid to stars such as Chris Evans had affected the mood at the BBC.

“I would be lying if I said it hadn’t. There is a bit of a febrile atmosphere I would say, in all truth,” she said. </s> Image copyright AFP Image caption A view of Pyongyang - a key focus of the service is North Korea...

The BBC has launched a Korean service as part of an expansion of its foreign language outlets.

The service, which began broadcasts on Tuesday, will provide news, sport, business and culture through a website and radio transmissions.

A key focus of the service is North Korea, where government censorship restricts access to independent news.

Korean is one of 12 new BBC language services funded by a £291m ($400m) grant from the British government.

The director of the BBC World Service, Francesca Unsworth, said: "BBC News Korean will build on the long-standing reputation for fairness and impartiality the BBC World Service has earned all over the world.

The service will be aimed at audiences in the Korean peninsula and Korean speakers around the world.

The service's journalists will be based in Seoul, London and Washington and will draw on the full extent of the BBC's global network of correspondents.

The BBC World Service is currently launching in 12 new languages - Afaan Oromo, Amharic, Gujarati, Igbo, Korean, Marathi, Pidgin, Punjabi, Serbian, Telugu, Tigrinya and Yoruba. </s> The BBC launched a new Korean language radio and online service on Tuesday that will be available to listeners in North Korea if the signal is not blocked.

The service, a part of the BBC's biggest global expansion since the 1940s, will have a dedicated team of journalists in Seoul, London and Washington.

"Audiences in the Korean peninsula and Korean speakers around the world can now hear radio broadcasts and access the latest news online," the BBC World Service said in a statement.

"BBC News Korean will build on the long-standing reputation for fairness and impartiality the BBC World Service has earned all over the world," said Francesca Unsworth, director of the BBC World Service.

A BBC World Service spokesman said without giving further details that monitoring by the BBC had shown that "at least part" of the new broadcasts were getting through to North Korea despite "jamming".

The service is broadcast on shortwave for three hours a day and one hour on medium wave, seven days a week.

The BBC in its statement provided the times for the transmissions both in Seoul and Pyongyang.

Listeners could face heavy punishment for tuning in in North Korea, which was ranked the second worst country in the world for censorship after Turkmenistan by US human rights group Freedom House.

Korean is one of 12 new BBC services being rolled out this year thanks to a £291 million (332 million euro, $393 million) grant from the British government, including broadcasts in Pidgin, Punjabi and Yoruba. </s> The BBC has launched a Korean service as part of an expansion of its foreign language outlets.

The service, which began broadcasts on Tuesday, will provide news, sport, business and culture through a website and radio transmissions.

A primary focus of the service is North Korea, where government censorship restricts access to independent news.

Korean is one of 12 new BBC language services funded by a £291m ($400m) grant from the British government.

The director of the BBC World Service, Francesca Unsworth, said: "BBC News Korean will build on the long-standing reputation for fairness and impartiality the BBC World Service has earned all over the world."

The service's journalists will be based in Seoul, London and Washington and will draw on the full extent of the BBC's global network of correspondents.

The BBC World Service is currently launching in 12 new languages - Afaan Oromo, Amharic, Gujarati, Igbo, Korean, Marathi, Pidgin, Punjabi, Serbian, Telugu, Tigrinya and Yoruba. </s> South Korea says it will remove propaganda-broadcasting loudspeakers from the border with North Korea. The announcement came three days after the leaders of the two Koreas agreed to work together to achieve a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula and end hostile acts against each other along their border during their rare summit talks.

Seoul’s Defense Ministry said on Monday it will pull back dozens of its frontline loudspeakers tomorrow. It says Seoul expects Pyongyang to do the same.

Read | North Korea to align with South’s time zone as first practical step toward reconciliation

South Korea had turned off its loudspeakers ahead of Friday’s summit talks, and North Korea responded by halting its own broadcasts. Seoul had blasted propaganda messages and K-pop songs from border loudspeakers since the North’s fourth nuclear test in early 2016. The North quickly matched the South’s action with its own border broadcasts.

Meanwhile, North Korea’s chief ally China said its foreign minister will visit Pyongyang this week following the historic summit between the leaders of the two Koreas. The trip by Wang Yi comes as Beijing and Pyongyang continue an effort to repair ties that have suffered from tensions in recent years, and ahead of a planned meeting between President Donald Trump and the North’s leader Kim Jong Un.

For all the latest World News, download Indian Express App </s> Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's John Sudworth asks North Korea's vice-foreign minister what message he has for Donald Trump.

North Korea will continue to test missiles, a senior official has told the BBC in Pyongyang, despite international condemnation and growing military tensions with the US.

"We'll be conducting more missile tests on a weekly, monthly and yearly basis," Vice-Foreign Minister Han Song-ryol told the BBC's John Sudworth.

He said that an "all-out war" would result if the US took military action.

Earlier, US Vice-President Mike Pence warned North Korea not to test the US.

He said his country's "era of strategic patience" with North Korea was over. Mr Pence arrived in Seoul on Sunday hours after Pyongyang carried out a failed missile launch.

On Tuesday, while visiting Tokyo, he called the North Korea regime "the most ominous threat" to the region. He reiterated that while the US and allies would exert economic pressure, "all options are on the table" in dealing with Pyongyang.

Tensions have been escalating on the peninsula, with heated rhetoric from both North Korea and the US.

Image copyright AFP Image caption North Korea held a grand military parade on Saturday

Mr Han told the BBC: "If the US is planning a military attack against us, we will react with a nuclear pre-emptive strike by our own style and method."

How did we get here?

North Korea has accelerated its nuclear and missile tests in recent years, despite international condemnation and UN sanctions.

Its aim is to be able to put a nuclear warhead on an intercontinental ballistic missile that can reach targets around the world, including the US.

US President Donald Trump has said that will not happen, and stepped up pressure on the isolated North.

He has sent a navy strike group towards the Korean Peninsula, and the US and South Korea are moving ahead with the early deployment of a controversial missile defence system.

Despite the tension, North Korea may carry out a sixth nuclear test soon, observers say. It test-fired a missile on Sunday that exploded within seconds of launch, following a grand military parade on Saturday.

What has the US told North Korea?

Speaking alongside South Korea's acting President Hwang Kyo-ahn on Monday, Mr Pence said North Korea should not test US President Donald Trump.

"Just in the past two weeks, the world witnessed the strength and resolve of our new president in actions taken in Syria and Afghanistan," Mr Pence said.

"North Korea would do well not to test his resolve or the strength of the armed forces of the United States in this region."

He reiterated US support for South Korea, telling his host: "We are with you 100%."

Last month, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned that pre-emptive military action was "on the table".

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption US Vice-President Mike Pence: "North Korea would do well not to test [President Trump's] resolve"

But the US is also working with China, North Korea's main ally, to pressure the regime to stop nuclear and missile tests.

Mr Pence told journalists that the White House hoped China would use its "extraordinary levers" to pressure North Korea, the Associated Press reports.

The BBC's Stephen Evans in Seoul says US policy now seems to be to persuade China to contain North Korea while keeping the economic and military pressure on.

What does North Korea say?

Vice-Foreign Minister Han Song-ryol told the BBC that North Korea believed its nuclear weapons "protect" it from the threat of US military action.

"If the US is reckless enough to use military means it would mean from that very day, an all-out war," he said.

The North casts the US as the aggressor.

At a news conference at the UN on Monday, North Korea's permanent representative Ambassador Kim In-ryong, condemned the US missile strikes in Syria, which targeted an air base after a suspected chemical attack by the government.

He said the US was "disturbing global peace and stability and insisting on the gangster-like logic that its invasion of a sovereign state is decisive and just and proportionate and contributes to defending the international order".

How advanced is North Korea's nuclear programme?

And what about other world powers?

China has reiterated its call for North Korea to stop all tests, and has also called for a peaceful solution.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told reporters in Beijing on Monday that the Korean peninsula was "highly sensitive, complicated and high risk" and that all sides should "avoid taking provocative actions that pour oil on the fire".

On Sunday, Lt Gen HR McMaster, the US top security adviser, said his country was working on a "range of options" with China, the first confirmation the two countries were co-operating to find a solution to the North Korean issue.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow would not tolerate "missile adventures by Pyongyang" but a unilateral use of power by the US would be "a very risky course".

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday told a parliamentary session that diplomatic efforts were "important to maintain peace", but "dialogue for the sake of having dialogue is meaningless".

He added that Japan needed to apply pressure on Pyongyang to "seriously respond to a dialogue" with the international community. </s> South Korea said it will remove propaganda-broadcasting loudspeakers from the tense border with North Korea.

FILE - In this Friday, Jan. 8, 2016 file photo, a South Korean army soldier stands near the loudspeakers near the border area between South Korea and North Korea in Yeoncheon, South Korea. (Lim Tae-hoon/Newsis via AP, File)

South Korea will remove propaganda-broadcasting loudspeakers from the border with North Korea this week, officials said Monday, as the rivals move to follow through with their leaders’ summit declaration that produced reconciliation steps without a breakthrough in the nuclear standoff.

During their historic meeting Friday at a Korean border village, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in agreed to end hostile acts against each other along their tense border, establish a liaison office and resume reunions of separated families. They also agreed to achieve a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, but failed to produce specific time frames and disarmament steps.

Seoul’s Defence Ministry said it would pull back dozens of its front-line loudspeakers on Tuesday before media cameras. Ministry spokeswoman Choi Hyunsoo Seoul expects Pyongyang to do the same.

South Korea had already turned off its loudspeakers ahead of Friday’s summit talks, and North Korea responded by halting its own broadcasts.

The two Koreas had been engaged in Cold War-era psychological warfare since the North’s fourth nuclear test in early 2016. Seoul began blaring anti-Pyongyang broadcasts and K-Pop songs via border loudspeakers, and Pyongyang quickly matched the South’s action with its own border broadcasts and launches of balloons carrying anti-South leaflets.

Seoul’s announcement came a day after it said Kim told Moon during the summit that he would shut down his country’s only known nuclear testing site and allow outside experts and journalists to watch the process.

South Korean officials also cited Kim as saying he would be willing to give up his nuclear programs if the United States commits to a formal end to the Korean War and a pledge not to attack the North. Kim had already suspended his nuclear and missile tests while offering to put his nukes up for negotiations.

The closing of the Punggy-ri test site, where all six of North Korea’s atomic bomb tests occurred, could be an eye-catching disarmament step by Pyongyang. But there is still deep skepticism over whether Kim is truly willing to negotiate away the nukes that his country has built after decades of struggle and sacrifice.

According to a summit accord, Kim and Moon agreed to achieve “a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula through complete denuclearization,” rather than clearly stating “a nuclear-free North Korea.” Pyongyang has long said the term “denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” must include the United States pulling its 28,500 troops out of South Korea and removing its so-called “nuclear umbrella” security commitment to South Korea and Japan.

Kim could offer more disarmament concessions during his meeting with President Donald Trump, expected in May or June, but it’s unclear what specific steps he would take. Some experts say Kim may announce scraping North Korea’s long-range missile program, which has posed a direct threat to the United States.

U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton reacted coolly to word that Kim would abandon his weapons if the United States pledged not to invade.

Asked on CBS’s “Face the Nation” whether the U.S. would make such a promise, Bolton said: “Well, we’ve heard this before. This is — the North Korean propaganda playbook is an infinitely rich resource. What we want to see from them is evidence that it’s real and not just rhetoric.”

Kim’s meeting with Moon was his second summit with a foreign leader since he took office in late 2011. In March, he travelled to Beijing and met with Chinese President Xi Jinping. While meeting with Xi, Kim suggested he prefers a step-by-step disarmament process in line with corresponding outside rewards, according to Chinese state media. U.S. officials want the North to take complete, verifiable and irreversible disarmament measures.

China said Monday that Foreign Minister Wang Yi will visit Pyongyang on Wednesday and Thursday.

China is the North’s only major economic partner, but trade has declined by about 90 per cent following Beijing’s implementation of economic sanctions imposed over the North’s nuclear and missile tests. Some analysts say Kim’s recent charm offensive was aimed at weakening the sanctions.

Related: World needs to be ‘careful’ about Korean peace deal, says Canadian minister

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. </s> South Korea halted anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts across the rivals’ tense border on Monday ahead of inter-Korean talks this week that are expected to focus on the North’s nuclear program, Seoul officials said.

Seoul had blasted anti-Pyongyang messages and K-pop songs from border loudspeakers since the North’s fourth nuclear test in early 2016. Pyongyang quickly matched Seoul’s campaign with its own border broadcasts and launches of balloons carrying anti-South leaflets across the border.

Also read | South Korea’s Moon to meet North Korea’s Kim at border for summit

South Korea, however, turned off its broadcasts to try to ease military tensions and establish an environment for peaceful talks, Seoul’s Defense Ministry said in a statement.

It said Seoul hopes its action would lead to both sides stopping mutual slander and propaganda activities. Yonhap news agency reported unspecified North Korean broadcasts were sporadically heard in the South on Monday morning. South Korean defense officials said they couldn’t immediately confirm the status of the North’s broadcasts.

The move came amid a recent thaw of animosities, with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un trying to reach out to Seoul and Washington in recent months.

Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in are to meet at a border village on Friday in the rivals’ third-ever summit talks. Kim is to hold separate summit talks with President Donald Trump in May or early June.

Kim has said he was willing to place his nuclear program up for negotiations. But it was unclear how serious disarmament steps he would offer during the two sets of the summit talks. U.S. officials have said they want to the North to take complete disarmament measures.

North Korea said Saturday it would close its nuclear testing facility and suspend nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests. But the country stopped short of suggesting it has any intention of giving up its nuclear weapons or scale back its production of missiles and their related component parts.

For all the latest World News, download Indian Express App </s> The Latest on North Korea’s decision to restore a key cross-border communication channel with rival South Korea (all times local):

South Korea says it is welcoming North Korea’s decision to restore a key cross-border communication channel.

The South’s Unification Ministry said Wednesday it will try to use the communication channel at the border village of Panmunjom to discuss its offer to hold high-level talks on how to cooperate with the North during next month’s Winter Olympics in the South.

Seoul on Tuesday proposed the rivals meet at Panmunjom on Jan. 9, but Pyongyang hasn’t responded to its offer.

The North’s decision to restore the Panmunjom communication channel was announced by a senior Pyongyang official who appeared on state TV and said the decision was made by leader Kim Jong Un.
The director of the BBC World Service says it is prepared for the North Korean government's reaction over the targeted launch of a radio service on North Korea in September, despite the recent international tensions. The North Korean embassy in London has already told the BBC "in no uncertain terms" that Pyongyang does not want any such service.