SEOUL — Kim Seong-Min, a prominent North Korean defector who used shortwave radio broadcasts, USB sticks and clandestine sources inside the country to relay foreign news to North Koreans, has died. He was 63.
Kim, the founder of the Seoul-based Free North Korea Radio, was pronounced dead at a Seoul hospital on Friday after a years-long battle with lung cancer that had recently spread to his liver, former colleagues said. He was cremated and his remains placed at a columbarium near the border with North Korea, colleagues said.
Kim was a former North Korean army captain who fled to South Korea in 1999 and in 2005 began transmitting shortwave broadcasts aimed at listeners inside the isolated state. His station became the first South Korean civilian-run radio outlet established by a defector to send news and commentary directly to people in North Korea, where access to outside information is tightly controlled.
The broadcasts carried a mix of reporting: accounts of defectors’ lives in South Korea, reports on the lavish lifestyles of the ruling Kim family, and political news from South Korea, the United States and elsewhere. Kim and his staff also experimented with nonbroadcast means of delivering content, sending plastic bottles containing USB drives loaded with news, South Korean television dramas and K-pop toward the North Korean coast and relying on contacts inside the country who used illicit mobile phones to pass along information.
"We, North Korean defectors, lost one of our leaders. We aren't sure if we'll have such a leader again. He was truly our hope," said Choi Jung-hoon, a defector who worked with Kim for seven years.
Kim frequently appeared at rallies, forums and television programs to call attention to human rights abuses in North Korea and to challenge the regime's information monopoly. North Korean state media condemned him, once calling him "a human garbage," and he received threatening parcels, including dead mice and dolls pierced with knives, which colleagues said likely came from pro-North Korean groups in the South.
Kim and his station also sought to explain political systems to North Korean listeners. Ahead of the 2012 U.S. presidential election, Free North Korea Radio aired a special program detailing how U.S. elections differ from the near-unanimous outcomes in North Korea’s parliamentary votes, emphasizing competitive candidate races and political plurality as contrasts to the North's single-party system.
Colleagues said Kim continued to take part in broadcasts into July and that his pre-recorded opening line still opens recent programs on the station's website: "Hello, North Korean compatriots. Now, we're beginning Free North Korea Radio broadcasts from Seoul, the capital of Republic of Korea. Our objective is overthrowing the dictatorship by Kim Jong Un and achieving a liberal unification on the Korean Peninsula." Lee Si-young, who worked with Kim for about a decade and became the station's head in December after his condition worsened, said Kim told staffers their work must continue "until one last defector is left."
Civilian efforts to transmit outside news into North Korea have faced greater obstacles amid a policy shift by South Korea's current liberal government, led by President Lee Jae Myung. Since taking office in June, the administration has taken steps to ease tensions with Pyongyang and has curtailed some government-run broadcasts into the North. Those changes and related pressure have contributed to a suspension of some civic campaigns, including boat-borne USB deliveries and balloon flights that carried leaflets and drives across the border, Lee Si-young said. She added that while the government halted some state broadcasts, it has not formally ordered civic groups to stop.
Free North Korea Radio airs two hours of programming each day, and the station's staff said they have continued broadcasting in the wake of Kim's death. The outlet has long acknowledged the challenges of verifying information received from contacts inside North Korea; in a 2014 interview, Kim said some reports sourced through phone calls turned out to be inaccurate, but he argued that a wide range of stories about the country could still help outsiders and defectors better understand life under the regime.
Analysts say information flows into North Korea remain a key pressure point on the isolated state. The government tightly restricts access to foreign media, and possession of outside literature, recordings or illicit mobile phones can carry severe penalties. Civic broadcasters and activists have sought to exploit technological and geographic vulnerabilities — from shortwave radios to sea and air deliveries of storage devices — to pierce that information blackout.
Kim's methods and activism made him a polarizing figure. Supporters hailed him as a vital conduit of unfiltered news and an advocate for North Koreans seeking to learn about the outside world. Critics, including Pyongyang's state media, denounced his activities as hostile acts.
Lee Si-young said Kim's voice still resonated with many inside North Korea and among defectors in the South. "I was so excited to meet here and work with him," she said, recalling recognizing his voice from broadcasts she had long listened to. Colleagues said they will continue the station's work, even as they grapple with the loss of a founder who played a central role in civilian efforts to break the information isolation enforced by the North Korean state.
Kim's death marks the passing of a notable figure in the decades-long campaign by defectors and activists to provide North Koreans with access to outside news and perspectives. His techniques — and the resilience of groups that carry out similar missions — will remain part of the ongoing debate inside South Korea over how best to balance advocacy for human rights and information access with diplomatic outreach to Pyongyang.