Interviews with Kim Seung-chul

I think the North Korean elites can lead and initiate change in North Korea. That is why these people must wake up and be innovative for North Korea to change fundamentally. North Korea is not a country where a civil uprising or a people’s revolution will bring about change. That is why once again, my activities are very much focused on educating North Korea’s social elites.

Starting in 2010, I began sending balloons containing DVDs over to North Korea. These DVDs carried documentaries introducing leaders of the world and other South Korean people. So far we have been able to fly some 20,000 DVDs to the North.

I also put together a documentary in 2010 titled, What Did North Korea Feed Itself During the Arduous March? This DVD was made for the North Korean public.

I think it’s probably the first DVD made that dealt with North Korea from a critical view and was made solely for the North Korean citizens. The arduous march refers to the period of time in the 1990s when mass starvation occurred in North Korea.

[In the mid-1990s, North Korea experienced mass famine that resulted in an estimated three million deaths.]

We also had programs talking about the execution of Saddam Hussein and the execution of Ceaușescu in Romania. I have made four documentaries of this nature and the best was the one dealing with the starvation issue in North Korea.

[Saddam Hussein (1937 – 2006) was the President of Iraq from 1979 to 2003 during which time he established a totalitarian regime. Hussein was deposed in 2003 by U.S.-led coalition forces. Subsequently, he was found guilty of war crimes and sentenced to death. Nicolae Ceaușescu (1918 – 1989) was the communist dictator of Romania from 1965 until 1989. He was overthrown and executed along with his wife by the Romanian people in 1989.]

In these documentaries, I reveal my face and background so viewers will trust the material. I explain that I defected to the South and have made this documentary here in South Korea.

I also receive feedback on my programs via fax and email with people in North Korea. I continuously air my programs and send DVDs to the North. Of course, I have to be very cautious. But I’m trying to provide the motivation and energy to the elite population so that they can initiate reform, liberalization, and democratization within the country.

Kim Seung-chul is the founder of North Korea Reform Radio and a passionate advocate for freedom of information. Kim grew up in North Korea where all media is completely controlled by the regime. Desperate for alternative sources of information, he would listen to illegal foreign radio broadcasts targeted at North Koreans. As a result of his exposure to independent media, Kim started questioning his country’s totalitarian system.

Trained as a civil engineer, Kim was selected to work on an international construction project in Siberia. He was amazed at how people in Russia’s most isolated region still had access to basic necessities that were unavailable to many in North Korea. Kim decided to escape and start a new life in South Korea. Once there, he launched shortwave radio programming that targets North Korea’s elite who Kim believes will lead the country’s liberalization. Remembering his own experiences with foreign radio, Kim made it his mission to deliver alternative sources of information to his people and inspire change. As such, North Korea Reform Radio delivers news and programming on leadership, reform, and liberalization that offers elites different perspectives on North Korean society and political philosophy.