By Eric Vandenbroeck and co-workers

The border between North and South Korea is swamped with layers of dense barbed-wire fencing and hundreds of guard posts. But dotted among them is something even more unusual: giant, green camouflaged speakers.

North and South Korea are technically still at war, and although it has been years since either side shelled the other, the two sides are fighting on a more subtle front: a war of information.

The border is covered with layers of dense barbed-wire fencing and guards patrol the area

 

Kim Jong Un might now be winning

The South tries to get information into the North, and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un tries furiously to block it, as he attempts to shield his people from outside information.

North Korea is the only country in the world where the internet has not penetrated. All TV channels, radio stations, and newspapers are run by the state. The reason for this control is that so much of the mythology around the Kim family is made up. A lot of what they tell people is lies.

Expose those lies to enough people, and the regime could come crumbling down, is how the thinking in South Korea goes.

The loudspeakers are one tool used by the South Korean government, but behind the scenes, a more sophisticated underground movement has flourished.

A small number of broadcasters and non-profit organizations transmit information into the country in the dead of night on short and medium radio waves, so North Koreans can tune in to listen in secret.

USB sticks loaded with foreign TV dramas and K-pop music are smuggled into North Korea. Pictured is K-pop boy band BTS.

Thousands of USB sticks and micro-SD cards are also smuggled over the border every month, loaded with foreign information, among them, South Korean films, TV dramas, and pop songs, as well as news, all designed to challenge North Korean propaganda.

But now those working in the field fear that North Korea is gaining the upper hand.

Not only is Kim cracking down hard on those caught with foreign content, but the future of this work could be in jeopardy. Much of it is funded by the US government and has been hit by US President Donald Trump's recent aid cuts.

 

So, where does this leave both sides in their longstanding information war?

Trilateral cooperation among Japan, South Korea, and the United States has moved in fits. It started over the last three decades, accelerating during heightened periods of North Korean threats and often stumbling whenever relations between South Korea and Japan deteriorated.

Nevertheless, the three-way partnership has come a long way. Efforts to coordinate began in the mid-1990s in response to North Korea’s emerging nuclear program. In 1998, North Korea launched its first multistage ballistic missile over Japan. Although similar provocations from North Korea may seem routine today, they rattled the entire region back then. That same year, Japan and South Korea took an essential step toward healing their shared painful history. 

In 2002, North Korea admitted that it had a covert nuclear weapons program. The so-called six-party talks on North Korean denuclearization, which included China and Russia, began in 2003 and ultimately subsumed Washington’s attempt to strengthen trilateral ties.

Despite Seoul-Tokyo tensions, North Korean nuclear tests, and U.S. diplomatic prodding helped sustain relations were sustained through this period. 

Unfortunately, a shift in domestic political winds in South Korea following Moon Jae-in prompted a series of new punitive measures from each side.

Information on low-risk USBs recently included a hit from popular South Korean singer and rapper Jennie

 

Smuggling pop songs and TV dramas

Every month, a team at Unification Media Group (UMG), a South Korean non-profit organization, sift through the latest news and entertainment offerings to put together playlists that they hope will resonate with those in the North.

They then load them onto devices, which are categorized according to how risky they are to view. On low-risk USBs are South Korean TV dramas and pop songs - recently they included a Netflix romance series, When Life Gives You Tangerines, and a hit from popular South Korean singer and rapper Jennie.

High-risk options include what the team calls "education programs", information to teach North Koreans about democracy and human rights, the content Kim is thought to fear the most.

The drives are then sent to the Chinese border, where UMG's trusted partners carry them across the river into North Korea at huge risk. The history of contact between the two countries goes back to 1948, the year of the declaration of Burmese independence.

South Korean TV dramas may seem innocuous, but they reveal much about ordinary life there - people living in high-rise apartments, driving fast cars, and eating at upmarket restaurants. It highlights both their freedom and how North Korea is many years behind.

Although we did point out that back in 2008 was a rough year for South Korea.

This challenges one of Kim's biggest fabrications: that those in the South are poor and miserably oppressed.

"Some [people] tell us they cried while watching these dramas, and that they made them think about their dreams for the very first time", says Lee Kwang-baek, director of UMG.

It is difficult to know exactly how many people access the USBs, but testimonies from recent defectors seem to suggest the information is spreading and having an impact.

"Most recent North Korean defectors and refugees say it was foreign content that motivated them to risk their lives to escape", says Sokeel Park, Director of Research & Strategy of Liberty in North Korea, who works to distribute this content.

There is no political opposition or known dissidents in North Korea, and gathering to protest is too dangerous, but Park hopes some will be inspired to carry out individual acts of resistance.

For example, Kang Gyuri (pictured below from the back for protection reasons), who is 24, grew up in North Korea, where she ran a fishing business. Then, in late 2023, she fled to South Korea by boat:

Almost everyone she knew there watched South Korean TV shows and films. She and her friends would swap their USBs.

"We talked about the popular dramas and actors, and the K-pop idols we thought were good-looking, like certain members of BTS.

"We'd also talk about how South Korea's economy was so developed; we just couldn't criticize the North Korean regime outright."

The shows also influenced how she and her friends talked and dressed, she adds. "North Korea's youth has changed rapidly."

 

Youth crackdown squads and punishments

Kim Jong Un, all too aware of this risk to his regime, is fighting back.

During the pandemic, he built new electric fences along the border with China, making it more difficult for information to be smuggled in. New laws introduced in 2020 have increased the punishments for people who are caught consuming and sharing foreign media. One stated that those who distribute the content could be imprisoned or executed.

This has had a chilling effect. "This media used to be available to buy in markets, people would openly sell it, but now you can only get it from people you trust," says Lee.

After the crackdown began Kang and her friends became more cautious too. "We don't talk to each other about this anymore, unless we're close, and even then we're much more secretive," she admits.

She says she is aware of more young people being executed for being caught with South Korean content.

Recently, Kim has also cracked down on behaviour that could be associated with watching K-dramas. In 2023, he made it a crime for people to use South Korean phrases or speak in a South Korean accent.

Members of 'youth crackdown squads' patrol the streets, tasked with monitoring young people's behavior. Kang recalls being stopped more often, before she escaped, and reprimanded for dressing and styling her hair like a South Korean.

The squads would confiscate her phone and read her text messages, she adds, to make sure she had not used any South Korean terms.

In late 2024, a North Korean mobile phone was smuggled out of the country by Daily NK (Seoul-based media organization UMG's news service).

The phone had been programmed so that when a South Korean variant of a word is entered, it automatically vanishes, replaced with the North Korean equivalent, an Orwellian move.

Smartphones are now part and parcel of the way North Korea tries to indoctrinate people.

Following all these crackdown measures, he believes North Korea is now "starting to gain the upper hand" in this information war.

 

Funding cuts and the Trump effect

Yet the Voice of America (VOA) is reporting on how North Korea's actions or policies are seen as beneficial to the country or its people. For example, VOA might report on how North Korean troops in Ukraine are gaining valuable battlefield experience.

 

 

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