The best way to reach North Koreans with news about the outside world is propaganda flyers from the South, the head of a defector radio station claimed Monday. Kim Sung-min (50) of Free North Korea Radio on Monday said, "There are no better channels than South Korea's leaflets that deliver accurate news into North Korea's controlled society."

He claimed news about recent uprisings in the Middle Eastern countries will persuade North Koreans to wonder about the state of their own country.

"From my own past experience, I can say that there is no better means than propaganda leaflets to make North Koreans doubt the regime," said Kim, who fled the North in 1992.

During military service in near the border in the 1980s and 90s, he saw many propaganda flyers and goods sent from the South. In the 1980s, North Korean officials gathered South Korean goods such as cigarettes, lighters, pantyhose, cookies, and candies, as well as flyers, and burned them.

"In North Hwanghae Province where I served as an Army officer in the 1990s, there were so many propaganda leaflets that they were heaped up like snow every day," he recalled. "Only soldiers who'd collected more than 1,000 leaflets were allowed to eat breakfast."

"The fact that the South could make such quality goods was a shock to the North Korean soldiers. The regime was very sensitive to it," he added.

He said North Koreans who are suffering power cuts may wonder how the South can use electricity so lavishly. "Sufficient electricity supply alone proves the economic superiority of South Korea," he said.

Kim recalled he became aware of problems in the North Korean system by listening to South Korean radio propaganda. "Continuous delivery of outside news will provide momentum for change there some time in the future," he added.