One of the problems the Japanese government has to contend with in its dealings with North Korea is the fact there is interaction between the two countries that it can't control, such as that which travels over the airwaves. Being a totalitarian dictatorship, North Korea doesn't have the same problem, but it nevertheless did something about the airwaves. In April 2003, Pyongyang became a signatory to the Berne Convention, a treaty that governs international copyrights for broadcasts, which means members must pay other members for use of their signals.
The Japanese media, in particular the sensationalist "wide shows," have taken full advantage of the public's interest in the weird goings-on in North Korea by freely downloading news footage by state-run broadcast entity KRT from satellite broadcasts. Pyongyang now wants the stations to pay (about 50,000 yen per minute, to be exact), but Japan's Cultural Affairs Agency says they don't have to, because Japan does not have diplomatic relations with North Korea.
The TV networks think it's their decision to make. According to the Asahi Shimbun, TBS says it will pay copyright fees from now on to an agency that North Korea has set up in Japan especially for such purposes. NHK and TV Tokyo claim that they don't need to pay because they use such footage only for "news purposes." Fuji TV is still studying the matter, and Nippon TV has declined to comment.
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