Korean Central Television - History

History

Television broadcasting was referred to the first time on 1 September 1953, just after the Korean War.

At the same time, Kim Il-sung expounded a view on developing television broadcasting in North Korea. Owing to the adverse consequences of the war, capital and materials were not sufficient. After eight years of trial and error, a broadcasting test was conducted for the first time on 1 September 1961. At last after almost 2 years of test broadcasting, the Central Television Broadcasting System of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea was established and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea started formal television broadcasting on 3 March 1963.

The network carried live the whole proceedings of the 5th Worker's Party of Korea Congress of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, held on 1 October 1970.

The Kaesong Television Broadcasting Station opened on 1 April 1971 (reorganized into the Korea Television Broadcasting Station for Education and Culture on 1 February 1997), Mansudae Television Broadcasting Station on December 1973, while Colour television broadcasting started on 1 April 1974. Central Broadcasting Television System (CBTS) would later be renamed Korean Central Television (KCTV) and was officially relaunched at 17:00 local time on 3 January 1973 (the first working day in 1973 in North Korea). The broadcasting was only Weekdays (workdays in North Korea) and closed on weekends and national holidays. KCTV started broadcasting on national holidays in 1981.

On important national holidays, the broadcasting time of each station is not the same as on weekdays.