Some catch forbidden programming via shortwave radios, others secretly watch South Korean TV. Denied access to information from abroad, North Koreans have inventive ways of following the news.
Image: Gedenkstätte Hohenschönhausen
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In North Korea, primetime is between 1 and 3 a.m., when it is dark outside and there is less danger of being caught.
That's when people gather around their radios, hungry for news and an alternative to state propaganda, said Kim Seung Chul (pictured above), of the Seoul-based shortwave broadcaster North Korea Reform Radio, which began in 2007.
Kim recently told delegates in Germany about his work, speaking at a site intricately linked with the history of political persecution: Berlin's Hohenschönhausen Memorial, a former Soviet secret police prison and later remand center for the East German secret police, the Stasi.
A site "with walls and fences," just like his native North Korea, 56-year-old Kim told the audience.
"We concentrate on bringing information to North Korea that might make people question the system," he said, adding that the fact people stay awake late at night to listen to their broadcasts shows how much North Koreans long for change.
Engineer, lumberjack, journalist
Kim Seung Chul started out as a civil engineer. When he couldn't make ends meet to feed his family, he went to Russia to work as a lumberjack - like tens of thousands of North Koreans who work abroad. It makes for a tidy income for the North Korean regime, the UN estimates more than two billion dollars per year.
After two years, he fled to South Korea, where he has lived since 1994. He worked at the Institute for North Korea Studies before founding the radio station. Kim has next to no information about his family, who may well be held in one of the North's notorious work camps to pay for his flight - a painful situation.
No escape from North Korea
North Korea is regarded as the largest prison on Earth. Latest developments in the country indicate that the regime is more nervous about letting its people and the truth find a way out than ever before.
Image: Tourism DPRK
No best friends forever
Although China and North Korea have maintained close diplomatic relations in the past, the relationship has declined in recent years. Unprecedented border controls on the south of the Jilin Province in China reflect the atmosphere: Apart from passports, travelers must hand in all their devices and luggage for an exhaustive, lengthy inspection.
Image: Daily NK
Bridge over troubled water
Despite all the restrictions, a viable connection to China is vital for North Korea. A new bridge over the Yalu river, which divides the two countries, is supposed to replace the derelict Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge that covers 70 percent of all bilateral trade. Construction on the North Korean side has stopped due to lack of finance in spite of Chinese private investments.
Image: Daily NK
Sitting on the fence
North Hamgyong Province, which borders with Russia and China, was hit by massive flooding last year that damaged or washed away barbed wire fences that prevent North Koreans from defecting or smuggling goods. It did not take long for the local administration to start building new fences and deploying guards to the border areas who are under orders to shoot any possible defectors on site.
Image: Daily NK
Home, sweet home
The number of North Korean defectors has been decreasing for several years in a row, but it is still a sensitive subject for the regime. The photo above shows a South Korean television celebrity Lim Ji Hyun (Jeon Hye Song by her real name) who returned to North Korea under suspicious circumstances and made a public statement in July on the local propaganda TV channel about the "hell in the South."
Image: Uriminzokkiri TV
Catch me if you can
Many North Korean defectors return to their country after their families are detained or blackmailed. Following a recent report, the regime has dispatched agents to border regions in China to locate and kidnap defectors. The abduction teams stay in the Jiangbin International Hotel and Life's Business Hotel in Dandong, the release stated.
Image: Wikipedia Commons
An amusement park gone wrong
Even though it is impossible for its inhabitants to leave North Korea, the country invites foreign tourists to discover the many attractions of the country. The official North Korean travel agency even launched its international website in August, offering trips to various parts of North Korea and even theme tours focused on architecture, biking, sports or - as cynically as it sounds - labor.
Image: Tourism DPRK
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TV, North Korean-style
In a country where listening to or watching foreign media is forbidden, state broadcasters reign, with anchors in traditional Korean clothes making tearful, angry or lofty announcements."Broadcasts are mainly propaganda in praise of the country's leader," said Kim Seung Chul, adding that the head of the Kim dynasty is usually depicted as a father or teacher to the people. People who live near the border to the south can receive South Korean TV, but Kim Seung Chul says the authorities are more watchful there.
From DVD to SD
At the same time, North Koreans keep on coming up with ways to access outside information. About 3.5 million North Koreans have a mobile phone, Kim said, adding that they are as closely monitored as everything else. The phones also lack Bluetooth wireless technology and the SD memory card slots are not functional.
Homemade radios like this one are used to pick up forbidden broadcasts in North KoreaImage: Gedenkstätte Hohenschönhausen
For a while, portable DVD players were popular, but today, people prefer small data carriers that are easy to hide - like USB sticks and micro SD cards. Kim estimates there must be are about 5,000 such cards in North Korea.
Window to the world
Radio is just as important, but radio sets in North Korea are manipulated so people can't choose a channel, smuggling radios into the country is difficult, and listening to banned broadcasters is risky. Well-informed citizens are after all a great threat to the regime and its limitless power.
All the same, Kim Seung Chul estimates that about 1.5 million people listen to North Korea Reform Radio – people who won't be deterred and keep on finding ingenious new hiding places for their radios, including in their potato patches or kimchi storage pots.
North Korean TV broadcasts spread the government's messageImage: Getty Images/AFP/K. Won-Jin
Brainwashed
A former North Korean radio announcer told the audience in Berlin about her life as the privileged daughter of a North Korean senior official. She was brainwashed from an early age, said Kim Jung Hyun, 58.
"As long as I can remember I hated the US and was convinced the Kim Il Sung's family saved North Korea." Her job as a radio announcer was a dream come true, she said: "At last I could spread the truth. For a long time, I believed the North Korean government stood for justice."
Loyalty is drilled into North Koreans daily, and the willingness to die for their country if need be, said Kim Jung Hyun, who fled in 2008 and has lived in South Korea since 2012, where she works for North Korea Reform Radio.
Before she began to listen to and watch foreign media, she thought life in other countries was just like in North Korea. "At first I was alarmed, but then, this strange world fascinated me."
Another reason she decided to turn her back on North Korea was the death in 2006 of her highly decorated father. "He starved to death," she said, arguing the North Korean government was to blame for his death, as well as the fact that so many people try to flee the country: "They never admitted the mistakes they made."
WorldLink: A defector's view on North Korea, in comics
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Working for change
Kim Seung Chul and Kim Jung Hyun hope their radio program will help trigger change in North Korea in the long run.
Many people don't believe what the state media propagate any more, or that North Korea is the best place to live, according to Kim Seung Chul. The regime is still so firmly in place because of the drastic controls and criminal prosecution. "No one dares openly speak back," he said, and that keeps the leadership in place.
As more North Koreans see and hear what rights and liberties people in other countries enjoy, they will be increasingly unwilling to stay loyal to their own leadership – Kim Seung Chul is convinced of that.
He speaks from experience. Over the years, North Korean refugees have told him that the radio station's broadcasts were instrumental in their decision to flee. It is stories like these that motivate Kim Seung Chul to continue his work.
The truth and myths of the Kim dynasty
The Kim family has ruled North Korea for the last seven decades, with state-run propaganda praising Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, and Kim Jong Un as godlike figures. DW looks at the rulers behind the myths.
Image: picture alliance / dpa
A young leader
Kim Il Sung, the first and "eternal" president of North Korea, took power in 1948 with the support of the Soviet Union. The official calendar in North Korea begins with his birth year, 1912, designating it "Juche 1" after the state's Juche ideology. He was 41 when, as shown here, he signed the 1953 armistice that effectively ended the Korean War.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Hero worship
In the years and decades after the war, Pyongyang's propaganda machine worked hard to weave a mythical narrative around Kim Il Sung. His childhood and the time he spent fighting Japanese troops in the 1930s were embellished to portray him as an unrivaled military and political genius.
At the 1980 party congress, Kim announced he would be succeeded by his son, Kim Jong Il.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo
Ruling to the end
In 1992, Kim Il Sung started writing and publishing his memoirs, entitled "Reminiscences: With the Century." Describing his childhood, the North Korean leader claims that he first joined an anti-Japanese rally at 6 years old and became involved with the independence struggle at 8.
The memoirs remained unfinished at Kim Il Sung's death in 1994.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/JIJI Press
In his father's footsteps
After spending years in the top tiers of the regime, Kim Jong Il took power after his father's death. Kim Jong Il's 16-year rule was marked by famine and economic crisis in an already impoverished country. However, the cult of personality surrounding him and his father, Kim Il Sung, grew even stronger.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/KCNA via Korean News Service
Rising star
Historians outside North Korea believe Kim Jong Il was born in a military camp in eastern Russia, most likely in 1941. However, the leader's official biography claims it happened on the sacred Korean mountain Paektu, exactly 30 years after his father, on April 15, 1942. A North Korean legend says the birth was blessed by a new star and a double rainbow.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo
Family trouble
Kim Jong Il had three sons and two daughters with three different women. This 1981 photo shows Kim Jong Il sitting besides his son Kim Jong Nam, with his sister-in-law and her two children in the background. Kim Jong Nam was eventually assassinated in 2017.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Grooming a successor
In 2009, Western media reported that Kim Jong Il had picked his youngest son, Kim Jong Un, to take over as the head of the regime. The two appeared together at a military parade on 2010, a year before Kim Jong Il passed away.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/V. Yu
Together
According to Pyongyang, the death of Kim Jong Il in 2011 was marked by a series of mysterious events. State media reported that ice snapped loudly at a lake on the Paektu mountain during a sudden snowstorm, with a glowing message appearing on the rocks.
After Kim Jong Il's death, a 22-meter (72-foot) statue of him was erected next to the one of his father (l.) in Pyongyang.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Mysterious past
Kim Jong Un mostly stayed out of the spotlight before his ascent to power. His exact age is disputed, but he is believed to have been born between 1982 and 1984. He was reportedly educated in Switzerland. In 2013, he surprised the world by meeting with former NBA star Dennis Rodman in Pyongyang.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
A new cult
Like the leaders before him, Kim Jong Un is hallowed by the state's totalitarian regime. In 2015, South Korean media reported about a new teacher's manual in the North that claimed Kim Jong Un could drive at the age of 3. In 2017, state media said that a monument to the young leader would be build on Mount Paektu.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/Kctv
A Kim with a hydrogen bomb
Altough Kim took power at a younger age and with less of a public profile than his father and grandfather, he has managed to maintain his grip on power. The assassination of his half-brother Kim Jong Nam in 2017 served to cement his reputation abroad as a merciless dictator. The North Korean leader has also vastly expanded the country's nuclear arsenal.
