By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff reporter
In a capitalist society, people take it for granted that information is power. But in some countries like North Korea, too much knowledge fills their leaders with worry.
A veteran expert on military psychological operations (PSYOP) observed that the danger of citizens receiving uncensored information appeared to have caused North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to fret over South Korea's plan to resume military PSYOP.
"Knowledge is dangerous to a dictator," Herbert A. Friedman, a retired Army sergeant major and PSYOP specialist, said in an e-mail interview with The Korea Times Saturday.
Friedman retired in 1995 after 26 years of military service where he held numerous senior positions, obtained three military occupational specialties and several special skills identifiers.
His remarks came after North Korea threatened to fire at loudspeakers that the South Korean military are setting up near the border in order to disseminate the "Voice of Freedom" radio broadcast.
If the broadcasts are launched, North Korean residents living within 30 kilometers of the border during daytime and 124 kilometers away at nighttime can hear about what's going on in South Korea and what happened in the North.
Feeling the pressure, the North warned that it would shut the joint Gaeseong Industrial Complex, the most symbolic project that combines South Korea's capital and North Korea's cheap labor, should the South go ahead with the broadcasts.
The North's closure of the complex could lead to the South Koreans working at the site being held hostage by the communist country.
Concerned about the safety of those workers, the Ministry of National Defense put off the plans to transmit radio programs via loudspeakers and drop propaganda leaflets.
"Dictators want to control all the news that their people hear. They cannot stand the fact that people might learn that they do not live in a paradise and might eventually demand freedom," Friedman said.
From the late 1980s to the early 1990s, North Korean leader Kim clearly witnessed the consequences his nation would suffer if the people were exposed to freedom and the free flow of information from the outside world through the dramatic fall of the Berlin Wall.
"When enslaved people get to hear uncensored news from the outside world, it always leads to rebellion and revolt," Friedman said.
Professor Andrei Lankov of Kookmin University in Seoul agreed on the effectiveness of the military-led propaganda in bringing changes to North Korea.
"Generally speaking, the infiltration of uncensored information about the outside world poses a major threat to the Kim Jong-il regime," he said.
With regard to interpretation of the North's reaction to the loudspeakers, however, Lankov expressed a different view.
"I suspect that the North Korean reaction is largely for show, since the loudspeakers on the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) do not pose a major threat to the North. The loudspeakers had operated for almost half a century until 2004, without having much noticeable impact," he said.
Kim Seung-chul, a representative of North Korea Reform Radio (NKRR), concurred with Friedman and Lankov, regarding the role of uncensored news from the outside world in shaping North Koreans' attitude and perception of their government.
"Earlier this year, the Pyongyang regime was almost forced to allow the reopening of markets in the wake of the failed currency reform last November. They realized that the people are not what they used to be in the past," he said.
When the regime was in full control of information that their people accessed, the North Korean defector went on to say, the residents were obedient.
"Now, these people know how the outside world works as they can access uncensored information by secretly tuning in to radio programs or reading leaflets."
In North Korea, listening to anything other than the state-run media is illegal.
Since 2007, the staff of the radio broadcasters ― all are North Korean defectors ― have conducted civilian PSYOP by broadcasting news for those living in the reclusive state.
During the one-hour program that is aired from midnight to 1 a.m. from Monday through Saturday, the NKRR has disseminated stories about what's going on in South Korea.
These North Korean defectors have also provided stories regarding current conditions on the North based on reports from unnamed sources in the communist state.
Last Saturday, the broadcaster delivered a story during the program that the U.S. government was considering freezing the overseas bank accounts owned by North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
In an authentic North Korean accent, a defector-turned-news show host explained the background of the U.S. officials mulling over the measure for her target audience living in the North.
According to her, the sanction was aimed at hurting the leader, as Kim was ultimately responsible for the attack on the South Korean ship that took the lives of 46 sailors, adding that U.S. officials were careful not to let innocent citizens suffer from the consequences of punitive action.
Civilian PSYOP projects run by North Korean defectors living in Seoul have drawn public attention after an increasing number of people who had escaped the totalitarian state for freedom testified that they secretly tuned in at night to listen for news of the outside world.
Park Sang-hak, representative of Free the NK Gulags, a Seoul-based group, recalled that he tried to keep anti-North Korean leaflets intact at home and read them carefully many times, when he lived in the North.
After escaping from the North, the defector-turned-democracy fighter decided to launch the civilian PSYOP by sending leaflets with U.S. bills inserted in them to the North as he understood what effect it would have on bringing a wind of change.
Friedman said tailored content for a target audience will be effective in influencing their attitude and perceptions of the situation there.
"The more the programs are realistic, the more effective they are. It is very important that the radio messages be authentic," he said.
"If they are broadcast by people who have not lived in the North, who do not have the proper accents, or who do not understand the way the people think, the broadcasts are laughed at and considered nonsense."