Free North Korea Radio started in April 2004, but in [2004], North and South Korean authorities agreed to end [government] cross border broadcasts. Defectors like me knew the importance of broadcasting better than the South Korean government. I believe in the use of shortwave radio to deliver news to North Korea. So, we agreed to start this radio program, because the government proclaimed they would no longer allow [government] broadcasting.
I was selected to spearhead this effort because I had appeared on programs like KBS [Korean Broadcasting System] and NBC of Korea for two years so people thought I was the right person. But again, it was an agreement and decision reached by many defectors.
We faced many challenges and difficulties but I always felt that we were really speaking for the North Korean community since we were defectors and North Korean ourselves. We would always think about what the North Korean audience would want to hear from us, and what would really spark their interest.
April 20, 2014 marks the 10th anniversary of Free North Korea Radio. I am most proud of how we have overcome the various challenges we have faced. The main threats came from the North Korean regime. Over 100 times the North Korean authorities publicly proclaimed that they would destroy Free North Korea Radio. This was featured on North Korea’s Nodong daily newspaper.
They refer to us as the “puppet of the United States” and even accuse us of having the South Korean Saenuri Party write our scripts which is not true at all. Primarily, they demanded we stop broadcasting.
[The Saenuri Party is a South Korean political party. In the April 2012 elections, Saenuri won a majority of seats in South Korea’s parliament and became the country’s ruling party.]
Some North Koreans who cross the border to South Korea will actually come to us and share that they listened to us and wanted to work for us. Because the program’s reach is North Korea, [a closed society], it is difficult to say how much of the population is part of our audience. But I have always felt their presence and so I’m still very determined to carry on this work.
Kim Seong Min was born in 1962. He grew up and received his education in Pyongyang, North Korea. Kim is the son of a poet and was trained as a writer. After serving ten years in the military, he worked in one of the regime’s propaganda offices. Troubled by the society in which he lived, Kim escaped to China in 1997. He eventually arrived in Seoul, South Korea in 1999, and ever since has fought for the liberation and democratization of his homeland.
In 2004, Kim established Free North Korea Radio (FNKR) to broadcast messages about freedom to those being oppressed and exploited by the regime in Pyongyang. These tireless efforts have been recognized by several international awards, including the “Prize for Press Freedom” from Reporters Without Borders and the “Asia Democracy and Human Rights Award” from the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy. Recently, Kim was elected as a Representative of the Coalition to Promote the Democratization of North Korea, an alliance of North Korean defector organizations based in South Korea.
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North Korea (the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) is a country of 23 million people in northeast Asia, ruled by Communist dictator Kim Jong-Un. His deceased predecessors—father, Kim Jong-Il, and grandfather, Kim Il-Sung – respectively retain the titles of “Eternal President” and “The Great Leader.”
The Korean War began in 1950, when Kim Il-Sung, backed by the Soviet Union and China, attacked South Korea. The conflict ended in a cease-fire rather than a peace treaty, and the border between the two Koreas remains tense and heavily militarized.
Kim Il-Sung employed harsh tactics to consolidate his power and propagated an extreme personality cult that has been continued by his successors. A blend of communist doctrine, state terror, xenophobia and hyper-nationalism has given North Korea its unique ideology. Despite some recent openings, North Korea remains largely isolated from the rest of the world.
With the end of Soviet communism and withdrawal of economic support, North Korea’s economy collapsed in the 1990s. A massive famine, aggravated by the regime’s indifference, killed as many as 2 million people between 1994 and 1998. While conditions have improved, even today, North Korea faces problems of malnutrition and insufficient access to food.
Tensions between North and South Korea remain high. In 2010, North Korea sank a South Korean naval vessel, killing 46 sailors and attacked a South Korean island, killing four civilians. North Korea has developed and tested nuclear weapons in contravention of several international agreements. The country withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2003 in order to test ballistic missiles and eventually a nuclear device. Multilateral negotiations have so far failed to constrain North Korea’s arms buildup and nuclear program.
North Korea is among the world’s most repressive states, engaging in widespread and systematic human rights violations, including extrajudicial executions, torture, forced abortion, arbitrary detention, and denial of the rights of expression, association, assembly, and religion. The government pervasively regulates all aspects of the lives of its citizens, each of whom is categorized as “core,” “wavering,” or “hostile,” according to the history of his or her family’s relationship with the regime. Access to housing, employment, education, and other social and economic goods depend heavily on these security classifications. The government determines where each citizen will live, and travel within the country is strictly limited.
Emigration is prohibited. Refugees who have escaped to China have frequently been forcibly returned to North Korea where they are imprisoned, subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, and sometimes executed. The government operates a network of forced labor camps for an estimated 120,000 political prisoners. While persons convicted of ordinary crimes serve fixed sentences, those convicted of political crimes are confined indefinitely. Punishment is extended to three generations – the offender’s parents, siblings, and children are also incarcerated, as a way to pressure North Koreans to conform. Political offenders are often denied food, clothing, and medical care, and many die in prison.
Freedom House’s Freedom in the World report classifies North Korea as “not free” and as one of nine nations whose lack of political rights and civil liberties are considered the “worst of the worst.”
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