Interviews with Kim Seong Min

All of the skyscrapers, theaters, amusement and entertainment facilities are all concentrated in Pyongyang. You would not find proper schools or properly built and operated factories in rural areas.

What is really shocking is that people living outside Pyongyang are not even allowed to enter the city. You need special permission to access Pyongyang. Even if your parents or children live in Pyongyang, you are not allowed to enter the city unless one of them dies and you have to hold a funeral.

That is how absurd North Korea is. Once again, if I were to explain the gap between the government elite or senior leadership in North Korea and an ordinary citizen, the gap would be as great as the distance between space and the ground.

In South Korea, I heard a North Korean scholar say that the number of Mercedes Benz in North Korea is higher compared to any other country in Northeast Asia.

These cars are gifts that Kim Jong Un provides to members of the leadership or to famous celebrities. Actually, the head of a military division would be provided two Mercedes Benz; one a sedan and the other a jeep.

This is a prime example of the reality that exists in North Korea. You have the elite enjoying these kinds of privileges and ordinary North Koreans starving to death.

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.

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/freedomnk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/radiofreenk

Website: http://www.fnkradio.com