Clandestine Broadcasters Want Access to Medium Wave Frequencies

Until now, I did not realize that the South Korean government’s practice of bogarting all the good radio frequencies was imposing such a high cost on dissident broadcasting to North Korea. This week, some of those broadcasters have joined to rally for access to medium-wave frequencies. In the current times, I can’t see why the South Korean government wouldn’t agree to this:

Four radio stations broadcasting programs to North Korea joined hands in a live event at Cheonggye Plaza in downtown Seoul on Wednesday afternoon.

Radio Free North Korea, North Korea Reform Radio, Open Radio for North Korea, and Radio Free Chosun denounced the North for shelling Yeonpyeong Island in November and called for the resumption of propaganda broadcasts to the North. [….]

Ha Tae-keung, the head of Open Radio, called for the South Korean government to support the stations. “Currently, broadcasters specializing in programs for the North are transmitting on shortwave, which costs tens of thousands of dollars in royalties to foreign countries. We could broadcast better sound quality to more North Koreans if we’re given medium-wave or AM frequencies which the government isn’t using.” [Chosun Ilbo]

A lot of people in Washington are fond of advocating “engagement” to change attitudes in North Korea. This is the kind of engagement that will actually work, because it reaches through the state’s filter to the very people who are the most ready to listen to it. More honest advocates of engagement, such as my friend Andrei Lankov, support engaging the North Korean people, as well as the regime. In many other cases, however, ardent advocates of the kind of engagement that funds the regime and reaches very few ordinary North Koreans have no words of support for broadcasts that have the potential to actually keep the Sunshine Policy’s broken promises.