Rumors about N. Korea
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By Tong Kim
Due to the rigid control of information enforced by the reclusive regime in Pyongyang, it is hard to know what is really going on inside the North Korean leadership. Watching North Korea is like playing a guessing game that feeds on inconclusive speculation and wishful thinking.
The difficulty in sorting fact from fiction provides a breeding ground for wild rumors from and about North Korea. Rumors tend to be sensational, and the rumors thrive when people are gullible. They may sometimes fill in gaps between what is officially announced and what is not under an authoritarian state system.
In this day and age, no reader expects a reputable newspaper to publish rumors. However, when it comes to North Korea, even major media publish rumors without checking the facts. Most rumors reported in the South Korean and Japanese media are debunked or prove to be dubious due to a lack of evidence.
Last week a North Korean female performer who was reported to have been machine-gunned to death along with 10 other young women on orders from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was shown live and well on TV. This highlights the groundless rumor mill that has been out of control in South Korea.
The Chosun Ilbo and Japan’s Asahi Shimbun reported last September that Hyon Song-wol, head of the Moranbong Band and an ex-girlfriend of the young North Korean leader, made a pornographic video with other band members. Allegedly, they were caught while talking about the claims that Kim's wife, Ri Sol-ju, had also participated in the making of the same video.
Speculation has been rife among an estimated 30,000 North Korean refugees who have fled into the South. Some refugees in Seoul claimed that Jang Song-thaek, No. 2 man in the North, was eliminated because of a previous sexual relationship with Ri Sol-ju, while she was a member of the performing groups that Jang had supervised.
The most recent director of the South Korean National Intelligence Service was quoted in the press as saying that his agency was aware of the execution of about 10 North Korean girl performers, adding credence to this rumor. But this is not the first time the intelligence agency has been embarrassingly wrong.
There were gruesome stories about how Kim’s uncle, Jang, and his aides were executed. Pyongyang officially declared the charges against Jang, which were articulated in detail, but the announcement did not specify how he was executed. This triggered more wild speculation about how he and his assistants were executed.
One shocking report was that Jang and five aides were “stripped naked and fed to 120 hungry dogs that had been starved for five days.” The source of this rumor was traced to a Hong Kong-based blogger for Wen Wei Po a vernacular newspaper. The nature of the story met the basic requirements to start a thriving rumor ― sensational and imaginative.
Earlier reports alleged that some of Jang’s closest aides were executed by rocket grenades and that a flamethrower incinerated the bodies so there was no trace.
Two years after Kim Jong-il died in December 2011, another wild report claimed a deputy defense minister was executed with a mortar round for drinking during the mourning.
To discredit bad publicity about the DPRK, Pyongyang finally had its ambassador to Britain clarify that Jang, whose execution caused so much negative reaction around the world, was “shot to death,” presumably by a firing squad as most public executions are carried out in North Korea.
However, Pyongyang did not execute Jang publicly ― and when there are no witnesses or evidence, speculation and rumor grow.
Given its strict censorship of information and its secretiveness, North Korea is in a way responsible for the rumors. However, speculation ― either for a serious research project or for a practical joke ― does not help develop ways to deal with North Korea.
Most rumors reported in the media come from anonymous sources referred to as “a source in North Korea,” “a dual source of North Korea,” “a source close to the North Korean party,” and so on. In many cases, we have no idea whether these sources actually exist in North Korea.
There is no way of knowing the origin of most rumors. They may originate in Seoul, Tokyo, or some remote area of the North. The people behind them, such as defectors, usually have some insight into the North. Some are activists for democracy and freedom in North Korea. They claim to communicate by cell phone with regular contacts in the North.
These deliberate misinformers use the conservative news organizations, to spread unconfirmed, but imaginative stories. Nevertheless, many of their claims, especially those surrounding Jang’s execution, have turned out to be false or inconclusive.
Refugees are certainly a valuable source of information because they have lived under the North Korean system and know best what it is like to live there. They know the system, people, culture and life in general ― but few know what is going on inside the North Korean leadership.
To understand the North Koreans accurately, one has to start from the perspective of objective, value-free rationalism.
By and large, North Korea’s official media outlets, including the Korean Central News Agency and the Rodong Shinmun, have been a reliable guide to ascertaining North Korean intentions and to interpreting what is going on.
Different views are welcome. Rumors are not. What do you think?
The author is a visiting scholar at the Ilmin Institute of International Relations at Korea University, a visiting professor at the University of North Korean Studies and an ICAS fellow in the United States.