FILE PHOTO: USBs loaded with a mix of news and cultural media content for distribution into North Korea. (Daily NK)After 52 years of broadcasting hope into the darkness of North Korea, the silence is deafening. South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) has pulled the plug on these vital transmissions—a decision that left me stunned and dismayed. What makes this even more shocking is the timing: NIS Director Lee Jong-seok made this choice less than a month into his tenure. This isn’t just a policy shift; it’s an abandonment of the state’s most fundamental duty and a clear violation of law.
North Koreans live in almost complete isolation, cut off from the outside world. These broadcasts represent their only window to see beyond their borders. No previous administration has ever had the NIS suspend radio broadcasts to North Korea, making this truly unprecedented. The flow of information into North Korea remains our most effective and strategic weapon for bringing about change within North Korean society. Civilian organizations have long wrestled with this same challenge: how to effectively deliver information to North Koreans.
The Lee Jae-myung administration declared upon taking office that peace means winning without fighting. Given North Korea’s advanced nuclear capabilities, the real path to victory without fighting lies in psychological and information warfare. North Korean authorities teach through political indoctrination that “South Korea is a rotten, diseased capitalist society full of homeless beggars.” But when North Koreans secretly encounter Korean movies or dramas, they discover a different reality. They express shock at South Korea’s economic prosperity and, above all, its guarantee of freedom and human rights. External information opens their eyes to another world entirely. Such information ultimately becomes a Trojan horse that can crack the foundations of dictatorship.
Yet since taking office, the Lee Jae-myung administration has banned leaflets to North Korea, stopped loudspeaker broadcasts, and now suspended NIS broadcasts. When you consider who benefits most from these measures, the answer becomes clear.
The power of information
Around 2010, outside information started flooding into North Korea. More than ten years later, we can see its impact. If these foreign movies, dramas, and news had no effect on North Korean society, why would Kim Jong-un’s regime be so desperate to stop them?
The answer lies in their extreme response. North Korean authorities created the “Reactionary Ideology and Culture Rejection Act”—a draconian measure that can sentence people to death simply for watching South Korean entertainment. Despite these harsh penalties, outside information continues to spread like wildfire throughout the country. The regime’s increasingly frantic efforts to control it only prove how powerful this information has become.
North Korean young people now think differently from their parents. They aren’t the “human bullets and bombs” generation willing to sacrifice their lives for Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. Instead, they question: “Why should I sacrifice my life for Kim Jong Un?” This ideological shift stems directly from exposure to external information.
What’s the real intention behind suspending broadcasts that enhance North Korean residents’ right to know and promote social change? We must question NIS Director Lee’s security and national perspectives. This measure clearly denies the Republic of Korea’s identity and shakes the nation’s foundation.
Another troubling development is the Ministry of Unification’s decision to allow access to North Korean media content in South Korea. This involves allowing North Korean movies and cartoons while lifting restrictions on so-called “special materials.” Yet North Korean films and cartoons serve purely as regime propaganda tools. During German reunification, broadcast exchanges resulted from bilateral agreement. The unification ministry’s move is completely one-sided. We’re cutting off information to North Koreans who desperately need it, while simultaneously allowing North Korean content into our country. The justification? South Korean citizens’ right to access information. It’s a contradiction that’s hard to swallow.
External information remains the only light and window through which North Koreans can glimpse the outside world. Even now, people work tirelessly to help North Koreans access even fragments of truth-bearing information. Their only wish: to convey reality to North Koreans.
How will history remember the day when a divided nation’s intelligence agency abandoned psychological and information warfare?