AP Scores Korea Central News Archive Access

NEW YORK: The Associated Press today announced agreements with the Korea Central News Agency, including one to open an AP news bureau in Pyongyang. Leaders of the two news organizations held discussions during a New York visit by KCNA executives and this week signed two Memos of Understanding and a contract.

The contract designates AP as the exclusive distributor of contemporary and historic video from KCNA’s archive, providing a new source of video content from North Korea to AP’s members and customers around the world.

Under one MoU, work begins immediately on discussions aimed at opening an AP bureau in Pyongyang. It would be the first permanent text and photo bureau operated by a Western news organization in the North Korean capital. Five years ago, AP Television News, headquartered in London, became the first Western news organization to establish an office in North Korea.

The second memo of understanding outlines cooperation on journalistic and photo/video technology issues, including a joint photo exhibition by the two agencies in New York next year.

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