Radio Free North Korea Issues Satellite Phones to Its Correspondents

For a long time, I’d wondered if there was some way North Korea’s clandestine journalists could free themselves from the restrictions imposed by short-range Chinese cell phone networks. The only options I could think of were signal repeaters hidden on remote mountain tops, or satellite phones. I’d presumed the latter option to be too expensive, but I may have been wrong.

Free North Korea Radio, which broadcasts to the North on shortwave as well as running an Internet service, said the satphones give it access to information from more parts of the country.

“Three satellite phones, on top of cellphones, have been in use since last October to bring more live and direct news out of North Korea,” its head Kim Seong-Min told AFP. The three satellite phone operators are based in the capital Pyongyang and the southwest, Mr Kim added. He said they helped spread reports last week that Pak Nam-Ki, a top financial official, had been executed for a failed currency revaluation. [Radio Netherlands Media Network Blog]

The North Korean Freedom Coalition supports Radio Free North Korea with financial contributions.