MUST READ: BBC on Clandestine Journalism in N. Korea

[Update: The Daily NK has more.  There is no English Rimjingang yet, unfortunately, but you can read a somewhat clunky google translation of their home page here.]

The North Korean regime has a name for journalism that it does not control: espionage. I need not elaborate on the penalty for those caught. Seven months ago, North Korea reminded us (ht) of how seriously it takes the surreptitious possession and use of a camera, and we’ve seen relatively little of that fascinating — yet agonizingly risky — guerrilla camera footage since. The BBC reports on the launch of Rimjingang and the revival of guerrilla journalism in North Korea:

In the Chinese city of Yanji, just a few kilometres from the North Korean border, one of the most risky journalistic endeavours ever undertaken is taking shape. A North Korean citizen is being trained in the techniques of using a hidden camera. His identity is a closely guarded secret, so he chooses to use the name Lee Jun.

Mr Lee is one of a group of citizen journalists that has begun working inside North Korea, producing written reports and video footage which are then smuggled to the outside world. He has crossed the border on numerous occasions, bringing hours of material showing everyday life in the street, on trains, even in police stations. [BBC, John Sudworth]

Richardson recently wrote about Rimjingang, whose reports include this understandable disclaimer:

The first edition contains an apology from one of the reporters active in the North Korean border area. “We admit that our writings will be clumsy and our pictures will not be beautiful,” says Ryu Kyung Won, also using an alias.

Still, for what it manages to capture on video, it removes some layers of doubt about third-hand reports, such as those from Good Friends. One enticing item is “a conversation with a North Korean soldier who predicts that his country’s army will collapse,” and apparently, some video evidence of the friction between female traders and security forces, but no corroboration of other reports of mass demonstrations.

No, it’s not the first we’ve heard of clandestine journalism or guerrilla cameras in North Korea, but I have an inexhaustible apetite for this kind of thing. I’m inspired by the bravery of oppressed people who would resist the world’s most totalitarian state, and I’m fascinated by how they are changing the rules of insurgency by applying 21st Century technology. To the extent a totalitarian state’s control can be weakened without the use of violence, so much the better.

Related: The entirety of the 2005 CNN documentary, “Undercover in the Secret State,” is now available on YouTube. If you still haven’t seen it, you really should.

Links for parts two, three, four, and five.