North Korean Policy Elites - Defense Technical Information Center

interesting developments include a North Korean cellular telephone network and E Mail
provided by the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications for certain businesses.
The new high-tech generation will not transform the Kim Jong-il regime, but some of the
few selected for this kind of experience may begin to question the tenets of the regime drilled
into them since infancy. And these people are all the more susceptible because they are more
exposed to information than are other members of the elite. The window may be open just a
crack, but it could be made to open wider.
The paper proceeds to examine a number of other divisions with uncommon access to
information or money:
• Diplomats speak languages, analyze world situations, entertain foreign visitors, see
information from abroad, and serve at foreign posts.
• North Korean diplomats are also an important part of Kim Jong-il’s worldwide mafia,
charged with bringing in cash to support their own diplomatic missions as well as the
regime.
• Closely related is a wider illegal money-making operation known as Bureau 39.
• Back home in North Korea, there have been signs of budding market enterprises,
including farmers’ markets, restaurants, and city kiosks.
To reach people inside North Korea, radio is probably the single most potent medium. At
a time when South Korea is reportedly watering down the content of KBS Social Education
Broadcasting, broadcast objectives should be reviewed. With accurate news about North Korea
as a base, broadcasts should target particular divisions in North Korean society and overcome
cognitive dissonance by offering a sense of belonging, and alternative frameworks. Some content
should be designed to appeal to small entrepreneurs and exporters, IT professionals, and younger
members of the elite, generally.
Other media should not be ignored. We should consider Internet site content that might
be attractive to North Korean elites. And experts should study the technical aspects of using the
E Mail system, the Kwangmyong intranet, and cellular phones. South Korean opponents of Kim
Jong-il are very active in the print media, but Americans can become more active.
There also are a number of relevant diplomatic initiatives that should be considered. In
particular, Roh Moo-hyun should be encouraged to articulate a South Korean vision of an
independent, democratic, peaceful, and prosperous Korea. This would help North Koreans grasp
an alternative framework for feelings about their government and their country.
Turning to the darker side, the only way to affect Kim Jong-il’s dirty diplomats and
Bureau 39 thugs is to squeeze them. A concerted effort to constrict the money flow will send a
V-S-2