Clandestine North Korean Journalism: A Step Toward True Openness?
I have never believed that Kim Jong Il would actually permit openness, reform, or transparency to breach the blockade he has painstakingly placed around his people. Fresh reports of the ghastly public execution of a factory manager for the “crime” of making international phone calls (and the deadly stampede that followed) make that point vividly enough. Despite billions of dollars in South Korean aid — aid that is ultimately paid for by the American taxpayers who finance South Korea’s defense — North Korea is more closed, cruel, and hostile than ever.
If you believe that North Korean society must be opened, and if you realize that the regime will continue to oppose openness, you have to overcome some creative challenges to imagine how this can happen. An idea I’ve previously advocated here, at Front Page Mag, and here, in the WaPo’s Post Global, is the creation of a clandestine network of North Korean journalists. How encouraging, then, to see that this has reportedly come to fruition. Let history take note that while the Daily NK was the first major outlet for North Koreans to report on their own lives, the people who trained the Rimjinnang’s courageous reporters were Japanese.
There is no one from the privileged class. They are simply urban residents who are well-educated, ordinary North Korean citizens who understand the value of this information.
Those who I have educated in China have entered North Korea, organized and educated people who wanted to participate in our activities. New reporters occasionally visit China to keep a relationship with other reporters. There are several groups of reporters. They cannot be mobilized at the same time for the sake of security.
They are working around Pyongyang and the central districts of different provinces. Those in border areas must take extra precautions because the surveillance near the border has recently become very strict. [Daily NK]
Remember these people in your prayers, because any of them who are caught will be treated as harshly as you can imagine.
This is part of what I’ve meant when saying the US should be doing much to infiltrate North Korea with loads of technological equipment and other forms of support to eat the North out from the inside:
The printing press was recognized early on as a major subversive tool. The examples of its use for centuries is well known.
Today, we have the ability to reproduce, store, and transport massive amounts of information for relatively little cost. There are so many ways and means, North Korea, despite how well it has kept the people in the dark, it is still wide open for exploitation by means of technology.
In fact, it seems like such a no-brainer, it makes me wonder if the powers that be have failed to understand just how much the isolation of the North’s people by the regime has created a unique opportunity to show the pen can be mightier than the sword.
South Korean soap operas on vhs tapes should have pointed the way to much bigger and better means…
BTW, I realize this is off topic, but Henry Hyde passed away. In view of his doing more for North Koreans than the South Korean government as a whole, I thought it worth mentioning. Sorry for the comment-jack.