News Analysis of International News

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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i_XatcZcOiTQ8006Nj3Tst04fJNQ?docId=8ba6f87c80e7438680810c9df9e6e83e

South Korea says North preparing for nuclear test

The story was written by Hyung-Jin Kim of the Associated Press. The story says that South Korean intelligence officials believe North Korea is preparing for a third underground nuclear test. The story also talks about North Koreas preperations to launch a long-range rocket, which has recently been in the headlines.

I was surprised by how heavily the story relied on quotes from sources (which is great!). Perhaps the author used mostly quotes because the tests are not confirmed, so the author is saying- hey, these people think North Korea might be up to something, but they can't be positive because North Korea hasn't said that they are actually doing it.

The story first mentions the report from South Korean intelligence officials and says it was shared with AP on Monday. (only AP? or was it made public?) The author then goes on to use three sources, a White House spokesman, a U.S. ambasador for the UN, and a U.S. Sate Department spokeswoman. The sources match well with the angle of the author since the author talks about how the tests are a threat against the U.S.

One thing stood out for me, and it's because it's AP, but the author uses quotes within the sentence:

She said a launch would be "highly provocative" and a nuclear test "would be equally bad, if not worse.

There are two reasons sentence bothered me. First, the story already mentions 8 paragraphs before that "The Obama administration said Monday it would consider both a rocket launch and an underground nuclear test as highly provocative and leave Pyongyang more isolated."

Then, later in the story the author writes that this women, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland, says the nuclear test is highly provocative. It just seemed a little redundant and confusing especially since she is not QUOTED as saying "highly provocative". finger quotes.jpg

Second, the use of quotes within a sentence always feels a little wonky, I can see the imaginary finger quotes as the author writes the story.

If this is the best option, then that's what has to be done, but it just stood out for me.

All in all, the story was very concise and even brought in other related events to help support the story.

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This page contains a single entry by calab010 published on April 9, 2012 8:23 PM.

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