Posted on 12/02/2004 7:16:14 AM PST by AmericanInTokyo
When North Korean defector Lee received a call from his dead brother, he assumed he was being visited by a ghost, or some kind of prank caller.
In reality, the introduction of Chinese mobile communication technology to the reclusive state has helped pierce through its Iron Curtain and break down a regime that insulates itself through isolating citizens, renting families apart and curbing the spread of information.
As Lee talked to his brother for the first time in 50 years over a crackling line, he couldn't stem the flood of tears. Inter-Korean projects to reunite families may work for the 50 or 100 lucky few each year, but two mobile phones managed to connect a man in Seoul to his kin in the near-impenetrable North Korean province of North Hamgyeong in seconds.
In North Korea, mobile phones are serving as conveyer belts of information from the outside world to help combat decades of state-sponsored propaganda and misinformation, opening up a new channel of comminication between the two sides. Since fleeing to the South, Lee is constantly harassed by friends and officials across the border hoping to trade useless documents or information for money. The fact that the two sides are now connected in this way is entirely thanks to Chinese cell phones. As Chinese communication firms expand their cell phone services, they have begun installing relay stations along the Sino-North Korean border, which has kindled a cell phone boom in North Korea.
In summer 2003, mobile phone signals could only be accessed on high-altitude slopes astride the Sino-North Korean border. Last Fall, however, a relay station was build along the frontier that extended the service to people's homes in border areas and large swathes of China and South Korea. The devices are charged using pre-paid phone cards, and cost roughly 400 Chinese yuan (W50,000-60,000) for three month's use. With the recent strengthening of border controls, cell phones have become essential to officials and merchants conducting business along the border. The first thing North Koreans request before doing business with Chinese is a cell phone, and demand for South Korean handsets is high.
When the North Korean authorities expanded cell phone service to major cities across the country, service was linked to Chinese-made cell phones in the border area, immediately giving rise to a "Communication Revolution" in which news from the outside world could be transmitted to places like Pyongyang and even deep mountain districts. Outside news, which used to take days and even weeks to reach remote inland areas, could now be transmitted instantaneously. This development has led to friction within the North's leadership. Following the Ryonchon Train Station disaster this spring, North Korea imposed a blanket suspension on mobile phone service after initially just banning the use of handsets in Pyongyang. This was ostensibly motivated by a (North Korean) State Safety and Security Agency report that said cell phones could be maliciously used to harm North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, for example by being used to trigger terrorist-engineered bombs. A former North Korean intelligence official who defected to the South, however, said the measure was handed down out of concern over the unwanted "Communication Revolution" that was taking place in the country.
Along with the suspension of service, the North Korean authorities are also strictly controlling the use of cell phones. One North Korean trader who goes back and forth from China said, "In Musan, North Hamgyeong province alone, the authorities have confiscated 300 cell phones as part of a recent concentrated crackdown in the border area. They've purchased a large number of the newest radar units from Japan and have begun to monitor radio waves 24 hours a day." He added that if authorities discover signals indicating someone has made a cell phone call to South Korea, that person is unconditionally sent to a political camp for reform.
However, the game of hide and seek between cell phone users and the state security apparatus continues.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
....We didn't have this kind of thing so available in Romanian hearthrob Nicolae Ceaucescu's final days....but what was not in short supply then (as now) is the fundamental will of the People for uncontrolled information and to be FREE. What an interesting phenomenon to watch over the next few months and years.
God Bless Them. We would all hope dictator Kim Jong-il, little dictator in the making Kim Jong-chol, and the leadership of the Korean Workers Party in Pyongyang are brought down in part by this available and unstoppable technology.
How ironic that it is the Communist Chinese entrepreneurs who are bringing this tech into the DPRK.
And a final note: (Were it not Japanese technology which the DPRK procures both on the open market and under the surface, the North Korean regime might have already collapsed. They use Japanese technology to strengthen their nuclear and ICBM technology as well as keep the people from freely communicating. All the while, Taepodong and Rodong missiles are pointed at Japan. Shame!)
[FYI, A detailed Korean-language chat room discussion on this article, taking place among South Koreans, is occuring right now at THIS URL: http://www.chosun.com/politics/news/200412/200412020405.html
anyong haseyo! oregan manimnidda.... bump!
Isn't a "crackling line" an artifact of weather and/or moisture conditions over analog telephone service using real copper?
Jeez, the Commies can't even get cell phone service right.
I think the Chinese will sell anything to just about anybody these days.
'crackling' may have not been a wise selection of words
A revolution is in the works in North Korea, I think.
A second Korean War is not out of the question in the next decade. If we do get involved (which we will, and should) at the aid of South Korea, I think we will have the help of thousands of North Koreans aiding in the overthrow of Lil' Kim's regime.
Either that, or Kim's already dead.
The article was pretty good and concise. I've had some surprisingly bad cells, and the author could have confused low signal level and dropouts with crackling if they were unfamiliar with cell service and/or only had analog service. I'm familiar with both because my analog service is out in the sticks and there is a background level of crackling and hum since the copper is so old.
ping
I think you are right. He does seem to have more of a "backed into the corner" air about him lately. Like the punk kid that continues talking crap even as he is about to get his a$$ kicked.
The resistance alredy exists, made up of:
His own officials who are anti-communist
A decent sized number of intelligent, industrious citizens
North Koreans who defected to the South years ago that are helping from across the border
You know the drill, indeed.
And what a day that will be, if it comes.
I just hope that at the end of it all that North Korea is finally freed from its long, long nightmare, and not plunged into another.
"Pyongyang, November 30 (KCNA) -- Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission, inspected KPA Unit 3875. He acquainted himself with the performance of the unit's duty before looking round the serviceperson's hall, a library, a bedroom, a mess hall, a washroom and other places to learn about its management. He expressed great satisfaction over the fact that the unit has put all aspects of the servicepersons' life on a regular footing by following the way the anti-Japanese guerilla army managed its units. He dropped in at a military lecture room to watch a training of soldiers. Seeing them undergoing an intensive training without wasting time, he gave a warm pep-talk to them who were making persevering efforts to thoroughly implement the WPK's policy of training. He spared time to watch an art performance given by servicepersons of a company of the unit. He had a photo session with servicepersons of the unit. The next leg of his inspection was a sub-unit of the unit. After receiving a salute, he watched its servicepersons in training."
The cellular signal would be relayed from the caller's phone to a recipient tower, then transmitted over those copper wires to a sending tower and then to the recipient cell phone. To their credit, the call was completed and they "got it right".
Most of America still uses this same method to connect cell phone callers. Granted, we have more optical networks than any other place in the world, but there's still a lot of copper hanging from telephone poles all across this continent.
and some hardcore communists who want his job or who are afraid that he is incompetent and will get the system busted.
I read a book in 1980 called "Your next fifty years" By Dr. Robert Prehoda. In it he predicted that within twenty years, your phone number would be your personal phone that you would carry with you. It seemed preposterous at the time, but...
One of his other predictions was that the Soviet Union would fall because, as the government became unable to shield its subjects from communication with the outside world, the inevitable unrest regarding their inevitable knowledge of their social and economic condition relative to the rest of the world would lead to the countrys downfall.
He was right on both counts.
Looks like it will apply to NK too. Wonder if they'll go down without a fight?
They can now eat the pigeons?
Ha, I love it when it's reduced to what it really is!
I speak the truth!
This what you call Korean can you hear now LOL!
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