New Survey Suggests More New Defectors Listened to Foreign Broadcasts
I tend to wonder how anyone can put much stock in statistics that claim to reflect public opinion in North Korea, but I report, you decide:
According to the poll conducted by InterMedia the majority of the 250 defectors who agreed to be surveyed ““ 57 individuals ““ responded that they listened to private radio broadcasts when they were in North Korea. This makes up over 20% of the respondents and shows that 1 out of 5 people listen to external radio broadcasts in North Korea. (see note 1)
According to the poll conducted by the Korea Media Foundation in November 2005, 34 out of 304 individuals, or 11.2%, responded that they listened to external radio broadcast in North Korea. In other words, the audience for private radio broadcasts in North Korea has nearly doubled in the past four years. (see note 2) [Open News]
Of course, this is only a selection of those North Koreans possessed of both the will and the means to escape, and even within that potentially unrepresentative sample, it may well be that fewer North Koreans are fleeing out of hunger or fear, and more are fleeing out of curiosity or hope. Tighter border controls between China and North Korea may also mean that fewer people are crossing to trade or work, or other reasons that would likely motivate them to cross back into North Korea again.
Yet for all of the reasons to doubt this survey, I tend to agree with the pollsters’ conclusion that foreign broadcasting is reaching more North Koreans. First, there is other evidence to support that conclusion, albeit other evidence that ought to be received with caution for some of the same reasons. Second, economic conditions in North Korea have gotten much worse in the last year, because radios and radio signals are more available than in the past, and because “unauthorized” broadcasts are the only source of news about the regime’s various schemes to destroy the livelihoods of the people.
Like most surveys ventured about North Korea, it needs a bit more scientific methodology and random sampling. 😉 The vast majority of defectors who come out these days are from the border areas where listening to foreign broadcasts is not that difficult these days in North Korea, in an age where the DVD is the preferred medium of choice in Hamkyungbukdo. In fact, last I talked to some individuals involved with “exporting” radios into North Korea, they claimed already 20,000 had made it across.
What the survey does is point us to a conclusion that indeed, hunger is less of a catalyst for escape these days. I believe the GAO released a report recently which found that more defectors are coming out of North Korea these days who have existing family within the ROK – “chain defections” if you’d like to call it that. The defectors I talked to in South Korea recently noticed that these folks were mostly from the higher echelons of North Korean society – rather than curiosity, the motivation seems to be more on the side of hope, a “South Korean dream” if one can be so bold to use those terms now.