The communist-inspired dictatorship of North Korea is founded upon Juche, a distinctly North Korean religious ideology that requires worship and subservience to the Kim family.
Christianity is considered subversive and is brutally opposed. Anyone discovered to be a Christian or to express any interest in Christ or the Bible is considered an enemy of the state.
The gospel is still proclaimed in North Korea through various creative means, including shortwave radio. However, North Korea has maintained and expanded its efforts to block VOM Korea’s broadcasts into North Korea. These programmes have continued to be among the highest-priority information-blocking targets of the NK authorities.
Due to VOM’s continued quick-response counter-measures (based on daily monitoring and analysis), the extent of successful interference against the broadcasts is significantly mitigated.
The brutal crackdown this autumn-winter on possessing and viewing foreign media (including teenagers reportedly executed in public for watching South Korean entertainment) highlights two prominent facts: North Koreans especially the young, keep searching for alternatives to the state’s propaganda and values, and radio stands out more than ever for both access and security of delivered programming.
Against the background of NK’s severely restricted borders, as well as the regime’s ever-tightening “total surveillance state” using digital tracking and technological media controls per the Chinese model, international public broadcasters have reconfirmed that radio broadcasting remains by far the most effective and safest way to reach audiences inside of North Korea.
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