Views of the Korean Border Following Destruction of Joint Korea Office in Rebuke to Seoul 
"We plan to start producing North Korean digital content later next week," Rohit Mahajan, RFA's chief communications officer said, adding that radio programming would follow.
He said the effort would rely on four reporters based in Seoul, the capital of South Korea.
"RFA's leadership team made the decision to restart the service, based on resources we have on hand ... recognizing the critical role of our uncensored reporting at a time when so few trusted sources are available to the North Korean people," he said.
RFA and sister outlets have been financed with Congressional funds and overseen by the U.S. Agency for Global Media. Last year President Donald Trump appointed Kari Lake, a former news anchor loyal to him, to head USAGM and she terminated their grants, alleging waste of taxpayer money and anti-Trump bias, forcing mass layoffs.
Trump's domestic critics called it a strategic blunder in U.S. competition with authoritarian governments including China, and the moves faced legal challenges and push-back in Congress. A bipartisan spending bill that still requires approval by Congress and Trump, includes $643 million for USAGM.
Mahajan said Korea Service broadcasts, for which RFA would finance the transmission costs, would begin later this month with one original radio program currently planned per week.
He said the restart would be financed by congressional funding allocated for the first quarter of the 2026 fiscal year and additional programming would be added once the fiscal new congressional package was enacted.
Mahajan said the Korean Service would join RFA's Mandarin and Burmese Services, which have already restarted content production and that RFA also plans to re-start its Uyghur, Tibetan, and Cantonese service into China.
He said that "before the U.S. Agency for Global Media unlawfully terminated our grant," the Korean Service had close to 50 staffers, about 37 of them in DC and 12 in Seoul.
Asked to comment on RFA's plans, Kari Lake said in a statement that RFA "had produced almost no broadcasting over the past year" despite receiving nearly $60 million in funding from USAGM, "while whining and spreading lies that they weren't being paid to smear Trump Administration efforts at USAGM."
"If taxpayers are required to fund RFA due to Congressional appropriations, we hope RFA will show a modicum of respect to the American taxpayer and start to produce honest, effective coverage that is aligned with American national interests," she added.
Mahajan said Lake had to date refused to meet with RFA and sister organizations to discuss their work. He said that despite layoffs and furloughs that diminished RFA's editorial staff by more than 90%, RFA was "fulfilling its Congressional mandate to provide accurate, timely news in our coverage areas."
He said RFA had to pay severance to laid-off staff and remaining funds had been set aside to sustain the organization and avoid bankruptcy.
(Reporting by David Brunnstrom in Washington and Heejin Kim in Seoul; Editing by Don Durfee)