North Korean Grantees Committed to Freedom of Information

No matter how hard the North Korean regime attempts to stop the free flow of information into and out of the country, recent North Korean refugees testify that more people inside the country are listening to foreign radio broadcasts and accessing non-North Korean media.

Much of this is possible now because of dedicated grassroots NGOs and civil society organizations based in South Korea, particularly those formed and run by North Korean defectors. They make available information inside North Korea through various means, including shortwave radio broadcasts, CDs and USBs, and magazines written by and for North Koreans. Through their personal experiences, they have come to believe in the power of accurate information to transform their former homeland.

Seung Chul Kim, the founder of North Korea Reform Radio (NK Reform), is a strong advocate for the free flow of information because he himself learned about the warped reality of his own country while listening secretly to the few foreign broadcasts then accessible in North Korea. Trained as a civil engineer, Seung Chul Kim was sent to work on a  construction contract in Russia, and he never came back. Three years ago, he resigned from his prestigious position as a senior research fellow in a South Korean government research institute to produce shortwave radio programming targeting policy makers inside North Korea. In a country where freedom of information is virtually non-existent, he strongly believes that if people inside could hear how defectors like himself could freely express their views and opinions about even the simplest issues, they would begin to think about their own reality. As elites in North Korea are the people most likely to have access to radios, NK Reform targets its programs to the policymakers and offers them simple ideas, which they can implement and begin the process of reform in the country.  

Seung Chul Kim was only a few years away from being promoted to a director position in the South Korean research institute where he had worked for more than 10 years, but he could not bear to ignore those he left behind in North Korea. In an effort to assist his family and fellow countrymen in North Korea, he founded NK Reform and started broadcasting in December 2007.  He used his family savings to cover the startup costs, hoping that he would find funding once others saw the importance of NK Reform’s radio programming. When he could not secure funding immediately, he was forced to use the rest of his savings. In spite of his wife’s threat to divorce him, he refused to give up because he felt this was the only thing he could do for his homeland.

Currently, with NED support, NK Reform broadcasts one hour of original programming daily on shortwave transmission. Seung Chul Kim and his staff spend long hours and often weekends ensuring that its programs provide the kind of information from which listeners inside will benefit.

In addition to NK Reform, NED supports three other nongovernmental radio stations broadcasting into North Korea: Open Radio for North Korea, Radio Free Chosun, and Free North Korea Radio. These radio stations are run by groups of North Korean defectors and South Korean advocates for human rights and democracy. With NED funding, the radios have been able to provide North Korean listeners, for the first time since the founding of the North Korean state in 1945, independent programming in their own language – with North Korean rather than South Korean accents. The radio stations deliver original content that is tailored to the interests of the North Korean audience, and very importantly, in language that is familiar to North Koreans.

Because North Korea remains closed and reclusive, it is difficult to measure listenership of these radio broadcasts or access to other sources of information inside North Korea. But refugees have stated that many more North Koreans than ever before dare to modify their radios, which are originally fixed to North Korean government stations, and black-market demand for radios from China is increasing. The radio broadcast organizations have also begun working with more communities in South Korea, such as university groups, to help them use radio as a medium to communicate with North Koreans and to increase the number of independent sources of information available to the North Korean people.

Organizations such as NK Reform are confident that fellow North Koreans share their thirst for information about both the outside world and their own country. It is this belief that sustains people like Seung Chul Kim as he works long and thankless hours to provide the people of North Korea a window out from the “Hermit Kingdom.”