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INDEX ON CENSORSHIP   |   VOL.52   |   NO.4 Up F ront The Index TECH WATCH A NOSE FOR TROUBLE North Korea’s dissidents are getting creative, says MARK FRARY NORTH KOREAN DISSIDENTS are going to extraordinary lengths to keep in touch with the world outside the country’s borders, as we learnt in October. The Index on Censorship team met with a group of North Korean dissidents in London, organised by Freedom Speakers International. We regularly run these sessions to meet activists face-to-face in order to better understand the challenges they are up against and how we can help. This discussion, like every other we have with similar groups, was eyeopening. We learned how some had escaped the country only to be forcibly returned before finally managing to escape to freedom. We learned how dissidents’ families are targeted to put unbearable pressure on those who have left. And we also picked up some new terms. One of these is “nose card” and, before you ask, it’s exactly what it sounds like – a card that you put up your nose. A card that contains information and entertainment from the world beyond Pyongyang’s reach. We wrote a few years ago about the Human Rights Foundation’s (HRF’s) Flash Drives for Freedom campaign, which sends content-loaded USB drives into North Korea. Seongmin Lee, director of the Korea desk & programs for HRF, says getting them into the country is a challenge. “Our partners have employed balloons, water bottles and person-toperson delivery to do this. In some limited cases, drones have been employed. All of these approaches and the manner in which it was done were less sensitive before, but these days a lot of greater care and discretion are required due to heightened risks posed to individuals involved in this work,” said Lee. The drives contain “anything that the regime tries to prevent,” said Lee. “This includes popular dramas and movies produced in South Korea, including Crash Landing on You, Extraordinary Attorney Woo, Parasite, and Hollywood movies such as Spiderman and Mission: Impossible, along with PDF books, news and historical documentary content. Hollywood movies are often attractive to North Korean people because this content often shows them that freedom, democracy, capitalism, fashion and humanity - unfamiliar though these are to them - do exist in the world.” The risks involved with smuggling the drives and cards means the price is high – anywhere between five to 15 times the monthly salary. “Reports on the ground indicate prices have gone up even further due to North Korea’s prolonged border closure in relation to Covid-19,” said Lee. As a result North Koreans are getting more sneaky. Now instead of USB sticks they have started trading and smuggling small SD memory cards. Micro SD cards are small enough to be discreetly hidden inside a nostril – hence “nose card”. Even so, domestic North Korean phones cannot be used to access the content. “Around 2014, the regime introduced a digital certificate system through a mandatory software update. Since then, these devices can show only regime-approved content,” said Lee. North Koreans tend to use Chinese ABOVE: Mobile phones are available in North Korea but there are restrictions on the content that can be viewed on them mobile phones, laptops, TVs and “notels” – popular Korean portable media players - that have USB/SD card ports. “These devices are unregistered, lower-end and often second-hand devices and most of them are smuggled from China,” said Lee. Radio Free Asia recently reported that the country is cracking down on unregistered devices. Penalties for being found with a card can be harsh and so something that can be tucked away nasally is a huge plus. “Penalties can vary depending on one’s status, personal connections and the amount of bribe used. That said, if an inspector reports the violator to the enforcement agency, and if the agency carries out the case according to the relevant law, we shouldn’t be surprised if the violator receives a sentence of five to 10 years in prison.” Such a prison sentence would be little more than a death sentence, said Lee. “In general, people there physically can’t endure 10 years in prison due to the extreme conditions they face in those facilities.” Mark Frary is associate editor at Index C R E D I T: R o m a n H a r a k , C C B Y S A 2 . 0 D E E D 10  INDEXONCENSORSHIP.ORG
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C R E D I T: A l e x C h a n Ts z Y u k / S O P A I m a g e s / Z U M A / A l a m y FEATURES “To win, we bring boxes of newly printed books to the libraries of Kharkiv and Izium. The books stare at a world with plywood-covered eyes” LIBRARIES TURNED INTO ARSENALS | SASHA DOVZHYK | P.18

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INDEX ON CENSORSHIP   |   VOL.52   |   NO.4

Up F ront

The Index

TECH WATCH

A NOSE FOR TROUBLE

North Korea’s dissidents are getting creative, says MARK FRARY

NORTH KOREAN DISSIDENTS are going to extraordinary lengths to keep in touch with the world outside the country’s borders, as we learnt in October. The Index on Censorship team met with a group of North Korean dissidents in London, organised by Freedom Speakers International. We regularly run these sessions to meet activists face-to-face in order to better understand the challenges they are up against and how we can help.

This discussion, like every other we have with similar groups, was eyeopening. We learned how some had escaped the country only to be forcibly returned before finally managing to escape to freedom. We learned how dissidents’ families are targeted to put unbearable pressure on those who have left. And we also picked up some new terms. One of these is “nose card” and, before you ask, it’s exactly what it sounds like – a card that you put up your nose. A card that contains information and entertainment from the world beyond Pyongyang’s reach.

We wrote a few years ago about the Human Rights Foundation’s (HRF’s) Flash Drives for Freedom campaign, which sends content-loaded USB drives into North Korea.

Seongmin Lee, director of the Korea desk & programs for HRF, says getting them into the country is a challenge.

“Our partners have employed balloons, water bottles and person-toperson delivery to do this. In some limited cases, drones have been employed. All of these approaches and the manner in which it was done were less sensitive before, but these days a lot of greater care and discretion are required due to heightened risks posed to individuals involved in this work,” said Lee.

The drives contain “anything that the regime tries to prevent,” said Lee. “This includes popular dramas and movies produced in South Korea, including Crash Landing on You, Extraordinary Attorney Woo, Parasite, and Hollywood movies such as Spiderman and Mission: Impossible, along with PDF books, news and historical documentary content. Hollywood movies are often attractive to North Korean people because this content often shows them that freedom, democracy, capitalism, fashion and humanity - unfamiliar though these are to them - do exist in the world.”

The risks involved with smuggling the drives and cards means the price is high – anywhere between five to 15 times the monthly salary.

“Reports on the ground indicate prices have gone up even further due to North Korea’s prolonged border closure in relation to Covid-19,” said Lee.

As a result North Koreans are getting more sneaky. Now instead of USB sticks they have started trading and smuggling small SD memory cards. Micro SD cards are small enough to be discreetly hidden inside a nostril – hence “nose card”.

Even so, domestic North Korean phones cannot be used to access the content. “Around 2014, the regime introduced a digital certificate system through a mandatory software update. Since then, these devices can show only regime-approved content,” said Lee.

North Koreans tend to use Chinese

ABOVE: Mobile phones are available in North Korea but there are restrictions on the content that can be viewed on them mobile phones, laptops, TVs and “notels” – popular Korean portable media players - that have USB/SD card ports. “These devices are unregistered, lower-end and often second-hand devices and most of them are smuggled from China,” said Lee. Radio Free Asia recently reported that the country is cracking down on unregistered devices.

Penalties for being found with a card can be harsh and so something that can be tucked away nasally is a huge plus.

“Penalties can vary depending on one’s status, personal connections and the amount of bribe used. That said, if an inspector reports the violator to the enforcement agency, and if the agency carries out the case according to the relevant law, we shouldn’t be surprised if the violator receives a sentence of five to 10 years in prison.” Such a prison sentence would be little more than a death sentence, said Lee.

“In general, people there physically can’t endure 10 years in prison due to the extreme conditions they face in those facilities.”

Mark Frary is associate editor at Index

C R E D I

T:

R o m a n

H a r a k ,

C C

B Y S A 2 .

0

D E E D

10  INDEXONCENSORSHIP.ORG

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