News & Insights

Tag: Social Change

  • Outside Information: One of the Keys to Empowering North Korean Citizens as Agents of Change

    Outside Information: One of the Keys to Empowering North Korean Citizens as Agents of Change

    The opacity of North Korean society—with outsiders having limited access to the country. North Korean citizens are often only seen as the victims—powerless and disconnected from the rest of the world. Because of this perception, decades of international efforts to engage and access the restrictive state have neglected to consider its people as a key partner in effecting change inside North Korea.

    However, evidence over the past two decades has shown that the North Korean people have survived poverty and repression by becoming more independent from the regime, claiming greater agency over their own lives. Recognizing the people are an integral part of the solution to security, human rights and humanitarian challenges in North Korea, the international community needs to do more than just stand on the side of North Korean citizens; it needs to empower them so that that they can play a key role in holding the regime accountable.

    https://www.38north.org/2023/06/outside-information-one-of-the-keys-to-empowering-north-korean-citizens-as-agents-of-change

  • Project Reveal: New research into North Korea’s Digital Control System

    Project Reveal: New research into North Korea’s Digital Control System

    The availability of the Internet and smartphones has transformed societies around the world. Citizens now can access knowledge from around the globe, seek out independent news coverage and voice their opinion with little filter. While state controls exist to varying degrees in some countries, nowhere is the control as complete and restrictive as North Korea.

    While the smartphones available in Pyongyang are little different to those available in other countries, the installation of custom software, a closed communications network and constant monitoring, mean the device in North Korea is useful to consumers for little more than consumption of state-approved propaganda. However, for the state, smartphones constitute a potentially potent vector for remote surveillance at scale. To date, there is no evidence that metadata is being exploited at a large scale for surveillance purposes, but this is an area that must be monitored.

    Much of North Korea’s information control system is based on the same technologies that underpin the Internet and smartphones globally but rather than expanding access to knowledge, North Korean engineers have removed or modified features to block it.

    Research explores use of technology inside North Korea, issues with usage of that technology and methods dissemination. Also explores how North Koreans are getting around attempts to block information dissemination. The result is a cat-and-mouse game involving technology, cell-phones and other devices.

    https://www.lumen.global/reveal-report

  • North Korea’s War Against Outside Information and Culture

    North Korea’s War Against Outside Information and Culture

    In recent years, the North Korean government’s war against outside information and culture has intensified. At its core, this war stems from the government’s belief that outside information and culture, which fall under the umbrella of “non-socialist culture,” causes fissures in people’s loyalty toward the regime, particularly the young generation, and poses an existential threat to society’s status quo.

    https://www.38north.org/2023/05/north-koreas-war-against-outside-information-and-culture