you've seen a lot of this:

“... the world watching

that high-stakes summit”

“... we're continuing our breaking coverage ahead

of President Trump and Kim Jong-un's high-stakes summit ...”

“... an unprecedented nuclear summit with

North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un ...”

But meanwhile, viewers in North Korea

saw a lot of this.

“The Sunday broadcast was much the same

as every Sunday.

So, documentaries about the life of one of the Kims,

revolutionary movies — one of the programs

this Sunday was about evils of tobacco.

And there were children's shows as well.”

“Normally North Koreans don't see anything in real time

about any foreign excursion by the supreme leader.

There's normally nothing until after he has come back

to the country.”

In a country built on controlling

the flow of information,

the state-run media apparatus holds all the power.

“By not reporting on things beforehand,

the North Korean government a) doesn't build expectations

and b) gets to decide that whatever happens,

it was a success.”

But on Monday morning, North Korean state media

did something unheard of.

“We saw an unprecedented amount of North Korean media

activity about Kim Jong-un's visits in Singapore.

All of it was reported in real time.

And in fact, the anchor, a woman named Ri Chun-hee,

a very famous anchor in North Korea, used the name

Donald Trump —

and used the the honorific form in Korean

to describe President Trump.

So this is unprecedented.”

This giant departure from tradition

is part of a bigger seismic shift.

Since Kim's conciliatory New Year's speech,

North Korea's propaganda machine

has toned down its anti-American messaging.

Broadcasts like this one,

have become less frequent.

And so have North Korean propaganda leaflets

like these dropped over South Korea.

They had been depicting Donald Trump and U.S. allies

in a hostile light.

But early this year, the leaflets

suddenly started taking a much less aggressive tone.

“A lot of messages about reconciliation, unification,

peace, et cetera, and there was even a Olympic-themed one

which showed the Olympic mascots,

and they genuinely look like they could have been

from South Korea.”

And in April, when both Koreas agreed

to cease all propaganda initiatives,

the fliers stopped altogether.

But time will tell whether a

friendlier tone in North Korea's propaganda

will translate into a shift in Kim's policies.

“North Korea likes very big gestures

and having a meeting with the president of the United States —

that means a lot.

And that can provide a certain momentum

internally in North Korea to get some tangible steps going

in terms of denuclearization.”