Secret news of North Korea comes out

Secret news from North Korea has started coming out. It become possible as a Seoul-based rights group has supplied few of its contacts in North Korea with satellite phones. This step is taken to minimise the use of riskier cell phones and to expand news coverage.

North Korea is a communist country and news are censored. It is difficult to get original news breaking the strict censorship of its communist government.
North Korea had executed its top financial official Pak Nam-Ki for a failed currency revaluation. The news could only come out because of these satellite phones.

There are several rights groups in South Korea who have contacts in North Korea. They relay news from North Korea via Chinese cell phones with pre-paid cards. However, these cell phones work only in border areas and not in the inner parts of the country.

Free North Korea Radio is one of them. They broadcast to the North on short wave. They also run an Internet service. The satelite phones give it access to more information from the country.

Free North Korea Radio, run by North Korean defectors, had given satelite phones to its correspondents in the North Korea in October 2009 to break down the iron cartain, according to sources.

Kim Seong-Min, head of the defectors group told, "Three satellite phones, on top of cellphones, have been in use since last October to bring more live and direct news out of North Korea".

Kim Seong-Min added that three satellite phone operators are based in the capital Pyongyang and the southwest. Kim also informed that it is not easy for the authorities to detect their satellite phone users. However, they have issued caution to their correspondents to take extra care looking in to huge risk.

North Korea strictly bans use of unauthorised cell phones and satellite phones. North Korean authorities use cars with special equipment to detect unauthorised cellphone signals according to rights groups.

Possession of satellite phones in North Korea could lead to a charge of espionage punishable by death.

Open Radio for North Korea, another Seoul-based rights group has reported execution of a North Korean in late January for using a Chinese cellphone. He allegedly informed a defector friend in South Korea about hardships they face in North Korea.