Interviews with Kim Seong Min

The Free North Korea Radio station was founded on April 22, 2004 in Seoul. We started with thirty minutes of broadcasting over the Internet. The reason why we started this broadcasting was because the South Korean government colluded with the Kim Jong Il [Kim Jong Il was the dictator of North Korea from 1994 until his death in 2011.] regime so that they would start mutual propaganda. And South Korea suspended all of its broadcasting towards North Korea and North Korea did the same. [Mr. Kim refers to an era of détente between North and South Korea known as the “Sunshine Policy,” which lasted from 1998 until 2008.]

The North Korean people only receive news and information from the outside world through radio broadcasting and leaflets. Since this form of propaganda was suspended we all thought that we had to do something and that’s how we started our movement. For six years our broadcasting has been airing everyday for five hours on shortwave. The North Korean defectors as well as the younger generation in South Korea are cooperating together to run this program. Funding is the most important factor of our movement and it comes from the US Department of State.

At first when we decided to launch the radio broadcasting only a few of North Korean defectors helped us in order to continue what the South Korean government had abandoned. Initially the South Korean government gave us a lot of pressure and there were pro-North Korea groups in South Korea that tried to stop us. They had done so by protesting in front of our locations in order for us to cease our radio broadcasting. At first we moved about six times to different locations. We used to receive more than one hundred threat mails every day and we later found out that it was the spies from North Korea who would send them to us.

We received packages that had gory things such as blood and axes, even to this day. The Chinese government closed down our website in their territory and the Russian government had to rescind the contract that they had with us. There were also hackers on our website so of course we were very intimidated. But we had other concerns such as our personal safety. We would all carry taser guns at some point and other self-protective equipment. But we all felt that we had to continue doing this and it was our mission to continue. Right now, at this moment, there are about 40 policemen protecting me and as I speak there are two policemen who are waiting for me.

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.”