AKIPRESS.COM - The BBC World Service is to launch regular news programs in North Korea as part of the biggest expansion of its journalism since the 1940s, according to The Guardian.

Korean is one of 11 new language services included in proposals designed to double the number of people who can access BBC services around the world to 500 million by 2022, when the World Service will be 100 years old.

The plans, financed by a £289-mln funding boost from the U.K. government in 2015, are likely to cause controversy in several places where the ruling power may not welcome the BBC’s offer of “independent journalism”.

The BBC’s plans, which focus on its links to “democracy and the free press”, come after state-sponsored rivals such as Al-Jazeera and RT have expanded into the U.K.

Other planned services include more than 30 new TV programs across Africa, more regional programming from BBC Arabic and a video offer in 40 languages. Languages to be included in the latest expansion include Afaan Oromo, Amharic, Gujarati, Igbo, Korean, Marathi, Pidgin, Punjabi, Telugu, Tigrinya, and Yoruba.

The increase in government funding announced last year came after the BBC was forced to take on the £245m annual cost of the World Service, which had been funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, as part of the 2010 license fee settlement with the government.