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"Hello. We're starting up Free NK from today from Seoul, the capital of the Republic of Korea. Toward freedom, democracy and unification."
"For the Rodong Shinmun (the North's official newspaper) to say this and that about the South Korean presidential impeachment is really too funny."
"If democratic politics could be realized in the North as it is in the South, one would have to recognize that the nation, its leaders and the Workers Party would have been impeached hundreds of times over."
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Northern-born announcers Jeong Ju-hwa and No Yu-jin (not their real names)
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This was Monday, one day ahead of the formal opening of Free NK (www.freenk.net), an Internet radio station created by North Korean defectors. In a six pyong broadcast room in a North Korea research institute in Seoul's Dongdaemun-gu, Northern-born announcers Jeong Ju-hwa and No Yu-jin (not their real names) practice reading scripts printed on cue signs held up by Free NK president Lee Sung-min; their voices are strong and emotionally-charged, characteristic of North Korean speech patterns. Noh has ten year's experience in broadcasting as a member of a provincial propaganda brigade in North Korea. Despite maintaining grave and serious expressions throughout their broadcast, they occasion broke into simple laughter when reading certain funny North Korean expressions.
Noh discussed why they use North Korean speech patterns in their broadcasts. "Well, we can do it well, and we think that way of speaking, which is familiar to North Korean citizens and defectors living abroad, is better," she said. "If we try to imitate South Korean announcers, well, firstly, we don't have the skills to do so, and people might mistakenly believe that these broadcasts are not being made by defectors themselves."
President Lee Sung-min, a seven-man editorial staff, a skills coach, announcers, reporters and web specialists put Free NK together. All of them are North Korean defectors. The start-up costs of the project were W30 million, which they were able to get through personal donations from members of a 4,000-strong domestic defector organization.
From Tuesday, one can listen to live broadcasts for one hour between 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.; the rest of the time, one can listen to recorded materials at their website. Programs that relay news concerning North Korea like "North-South Relations News" and "Defector Notes" will be broadcasted everyday. Once a week, the site will broadcast programs like former Workers Party secretary Hwang Jang-yeop's "Democratic Philosophy Classes," Chungang University Professor Kim Yong-beom's "The Structure of National Division and North Korean Literature" and "North Korean Poetry and Songs." Once a week, one of the station's seven editors will read an editorial statement on North Korean affairs as well. "Defector Notes," which will vividly convey the experiences that befell defectors in North Korea, China and South Korea, will be conducted in dialogue format, but will later be dramatized.
(Kim Jae-eun, 2ruth@chosun.com )
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