A critical lifeline of outside information for North Koreans is being severed, as major U.S. and South Korean government-funded broadcasters have fallen silent, leaving a handful of small, struggling defector-run stations to fight a vastly one-sided information war.
For decades, broadcasters like Voice of America and Radio Free Asia provided uncensored news to North Koreans, who risk imprisonment to listen on smuggled or modified radios. However, an assessment by 38 North found outside radio broadcasting has dropped by 85% this year due to sweeping funding cuts.
The silence is the result of direct policy changes:
- United States: President Donald Trump signed an executive order dismantling the agency that funded the broadcasters, citing liberal bias and waste.
- South Korea: The Lee Jae Myung administration halted its cross-border broadcasts in an attempt to reduce tensions with the North.
This has left stations like Free North Korea Radio (FNK), a small NGO run by defectors, to carry the burden alone. “We’re afraid that they’ve abandoned North Korean residents,” said FNK head Lee Si-young, expressing the growing frustration that the world is turning off the lights for a population living in informational darkness.
By James Kisoo
