Pyongyang Seoul Media Room Prepares for Buzz
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
The inter-Korean summit to be held in Pyongyang is a highly significant international event. However, for most reporters, the Lotte Hotel in downtown Seoul will be the closest they could get to the North Korean capital.
Ahn Young-bae, vice minister of South Korea’s Government Information Agency, hopes that the latest advancements in telecommunications would keep geography from becoming too much of a factor.
The South Korean government today opens a large scale news center at the second-floor of the Lotte Hotel in Sogong-dong, which allows journalists from here and abroad to receive realtime updates on the latest news both in Korean and English from North Korea and quickly relay them to the rest of the world.
“Achieving a seamless connection in telecommunications and broadcasting is our biggest goal,” said Ahn, taking a quick break for the interview Sunday as dozens of government officials and technicians scurried around the hotel corridors putting up the finishing touches.
“I am confident that we can produce good results, providing data to reporters with speed and accuracy.
Compared with the 2000 summit, our communication with North Korean officials is a lot better and we were able to set up an advanced online and broadcasting network connecting here and Pyongyang,” he said.
As of Sunday, about 1,100 reporters, including 236 from foreign news outlets, had signed up to use the press center. Organizers, who are expecting a maximum of 1,300 reporters, will continue to take registrations on site.
There are LAN (local area network) connections and bandwidth for 800 reporters to log-in at one time, and also a broadcasting center for television stations.
Reporters will also have access to an online program that allows them to download text, image and video sent from Pyongyang on a real-time basis.