UPDATE (26 June): Part II of this excerpt can be found here.
Excerpts from a paper on the effectiveness of monitoring conditions inside North Korea by using Chinese cellphone-based networks operated by North Korean defectors in the South.
Long thought of as the world’s most isolated nation, with little information flowing to outsiders on conditions inside the country, North Korea may finally be getting pried open at the hands of defectors armed with Chinese cellphones. The flow of information has become so impressive that Sisa Journal, the South’s leading newsmagazine, declared the day of near real-time reporting of events in North Korea had finally dawned.
The system[2] works by having someone with contacts in the North, usually a recent defector now based in the South, send a smuggled cellphone to family members or friends still living in the North. The contact inside the North then builds a network of connections, starting with friends and family members, but eventually growing to include members of the North’s government and military – additions to the network that are facilitated by outside cash in exchange for inside information. The networks are kept limited and divided into small cells to help avoid infiltration and minimize risks to the entire network should an informant get caught by Chinese or North Korean security services.