Cell Phones Spark 'Communication Revolution' in N.K.
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When North Korean defector Lee received a call from his dead brother, he assumed he was being visited by a ghost, or some kind of prank caller.
In reality, the introduction of Chinese mobile communication technology to the reclusive state has helped pierce through its Iron Curtain and break down a regime that insulates itself through isolating citizens, renting families apart and curbing the spread of information.
As Lee talked to his brother for the first time in 50 years over a crackling line, he couldn't stem the flood of tears. Inter-Korean projects to reunite families may work for the 50 or 100 lucky few each year, but two mobile phones managed to connect a man in Seoul to his kin in the near-impenetrable North Korean province of North Hamgyeong in seconds.
A man talks on his cell phone as he strolls down Younggwang Street in Pyongyang in late spring. The use of handsets was later banned by the Northern leadership.
In North Korea, mobile phones are serving as conveyer belts of information from the outside world to help combat decades of state-sponsored propaganda and misinformation, opening up a new channel of comminication between the two sides. Since fleeing to the South, Lee is constantly harassed by friends and officials across the border hoping to trade useless documents or information for money.
The fact that the two sides are now connected in this way is entirely thanks to Chinese cell phones. As Chinese communication firms expand their cell phone services, they have begun installing relay stations along the Sino-North Korean border, which has kindled a cell phone boom in North Korea.
In summer 2003, mobile phone signals could only be accessed on high-altitude slopes astride the Sino-North Korean border. Last Fall, however, a relay station was build along the frontier that extended the service to people's homes in border areas and large swathes of China and South Korea. The devices are charged using pre-paid phone cards, and cost roughly 400 Chinese yuan (W50,000-60,000) for three month's use.
With the recent strengthening of border controls, cell phones have become essential to officials and merchants conducting business along the border. The first thing North Koreans request before doing business with Chinese is a cell phone, and demand for South Korean handsets is high.
When the North Korean authorities expanded cell phone service to major cities across the country, service was linked to Chinese-made cell phones in the border area, immediately giving rise to a "Communication Revolution" in which news from the outside world could be transmitted to places like Pyongyang and even deep mountain districts. Outside news, which used to take days and even weeks to reach remote inland areas, could now be transmitted instantaneously.
This development has led to friction within the North's leadership. Following the Ryonchon Train Station disaster this spring, North Korea imposed a blanket suspension on mobile phone service after initially just banning the use of handsets in Pyongyang.
This was ostensibly motivated by a State Safety and Security Agency report that said cell phones could be maliciously used to harm North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, for example by being used to trigger terrorist-engineered bombs. A former North Korean intelligence official who defected to the South, however, said the measure was handed down out of concern over the unwanted "Communication Revolution" that was taking place in the country.
Along with the suspension of service, the North Korean authorities are also strictly controlling the use of cell phones. One North Korean trader who goes back and forth from China said, "In Musan, North Hamgyeong province alone, the authorities have confiscated 300 cell phones as part of a recent concentrated crackdown in the border area. They've purchased a large number of the newest radar units from Japan and have begun to monitor radio waves 24 hours a day."
He added that if authorities discover signals indicating someone has made a cell phone call to South Korea, that person is unconditionally sent to a political camp for reform.
However, the game of hide and seek between cell phone users and the state security apparatus continues.
english.chosun.com |
