Disrupting the North Korean Regime’s Control: Increasing Information Access
North Korea is the most closed and isolated information environment in the world. The regime’s control hinges upon suppressing outside sources of information that could contradict or undermine their ideology. This makes their system of repression extremely effective; it also highlights a critical weakness, one that creates an opportunity for us to effect change inside the country.
Information is power. It enables people to scrutinize the world around them, hold governments accountable, and aspire towards a better life.
At Liberty in North Korea, we’re empowering people inside North Korea with tailor-made tools and technologies that increase their information access, and make that access safer and easier. But what does this actually look like? We asked our Chief Strategy Officer, Sokeel Park, to answer some frequently asked questions about our Information Access Programs (IAP).
1. Without the internet, is it really possible to increase information access inside North Korea?
Yes, absolutely. North Korean people are already accessing uncensored information and media without the internet, notably through USB drives and MicroSD cards that are smuggled into the country and spread through sharing networks. These contain K-dramas, movies, music, and information that the North Korean regime tries so hard to keep out of the country.
The devices and hardware are already in use, the demand is there, and the sharing networks and behaviour exists. The need and opportunity is to leverage and build on this, providing new technologies that will help North Korean people access more uncensored information more safely.
2. Isn’t enabling North Koreans to access illegal foreign media putting them in danger?
Accessing uncensored information is risky in North Korea, especially with increased crackdowns and punishments in recent years. Our technologies and digital security tools equip North Koreans to access information more safely.
North Korean people will continue to take risks for information and media that most people in the world would take for granted.
User security is our highest priority in our development process, and this is guided by North Korean defectors who left the country recently, understand the environment, and can advise us on the best ways to protect and empower North Korean people who are trying to access uncensored information.
3. What is LiNK doing to increase North Korean people’s access to information?
LiNK’s IAP work can be broken down into four areas of focus.
We develop lightweight, secure programs help more North Koreans access more uncensored information; protect North Korean users with digital security and anti-surveillance measures; create and curate strategic content that meet North Korean people’s needs and build resilience to the regime’s propaganda; and work with distribution partners to deliver these technologies and content packages to North Koreans as reliably, effectively, and safely as we can.
4. Why did LiNK decide to do Information Access work?
In a 2024 HanVoice Woorion survey of 500 North Korean refugees, 86.2% agreed that “it is important to increase the flow of information to North Korean people.” This is the most effective way that we can support change inside North Korea.
As an organization, LiNK is uniquely positioned to do this work. With our long history of rescuing and supporting North Korean refugees, we have the networks and ability to work closely with a variety of North Koreans, including recent defectors and people who studied and worked in IT in North Korea, who inform and help test our products and strategies from start to finish.
Crucially, because of the support of people like you, we are able to make strategic investments in projects that governments or other funders may not support, which enables us to pursue the most effective long-term strategy possible to support North Korean people to achieve their freedom.
5. What kind of information can North Koreans access, both legally and illegally?
Legally, North Korean people have access to official media which is extremely centrally controlled and produced. There are no newspapers, TV stations or media channels with an alternative viewpoint from the government, and all official media serves to reinforce the regime’s ideologies and narratives about the outside world, their own country and the leadership. This official media includes, for instance, newspapers, North Korean films and dramas, carefully selected foreign (eg. Russian) films, partially censored sports broadcasts, radio, speeches by the ruling Kim family, government-approved books, and government-approved mobile apps.
Illegally accessed information or media could theoretically include anything, but most commonly would be movies and TV dramas from South Korea, China and elsewhere, music, some e-books, and foreign radio broadcasts including news and documentary programs. Close to the border with China, some North Korean people have a smuggled Chinese smartphone that can be used to connect to the Chinese network and communicate with or get information from the outside world.
→ Want to learn more about life inside North Korea? Sign up for North Korea 101, LiNK’s free online course!
6. How do we know increasing North Korean people’s access to information will help change North Korea?
Hundreds of interviews with North Korean refugees conducted by LiNK, and thousands more by other organizations, consistently show how access to outside information reshaped their understanding of the world, undermined regime propaganda, and often was key in their decision to risk their lives and seek freedom. We also see the North Korean regime’s crackdowns on this access to outside information, especially in recent years, as evidence that the regime understands the power of information to undermine their control and change their country as well.
Throughout history, we’ve seen similar dynamics in other authoritarian countries, where greater access to uncensored information has consistently increased aspirations for freedom, expanded people’s sense of what was possible, and played a key role in people overcoming dictatorships and achieving freedom across the world.
It is inherently difficult to capture and measure the long-term effects of information, particularly in a country like North Korea. But when history, logic, the testimony of countless North Koreans, and careful product and strategy validation processes all point in the same direction, investing in increasing North Korean people’s access to information is not a leap of faith. It is the strongest, most evidence-based opportunity to help North Koreans shape their future and ultimately achieve their liberty.
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In the first half of 2026, our IAP team successfully deployed new information-access technologies across one of the world’s most tightly controlled borders, and reached people inside North Korea.
We believe North Koreans deserve the freedom to access information and make their own choices, and we’re committed to helping them break through the regime’s surveillance and censorship. Increasing information access is one of the most effective ways that we can have a direct impact on North Korean people’s lives right now.
Help drive change from inside North Korea by investing in LiNK’s Information Access Programs.
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I am Joy: I Escaped North Korea and Survived Human Trafficking
I was born and raised in a small North Korean village near the border with China. My family was very poor, and it made life extremely difficult for us. As a child I could not attend school and didn’t have any dreams for my future, because we were just trying to survive.
When I was seven, my mother quietly left us to go to China in order to make money. It took me months to realize that she was never coming back. As a teenager, my stepmother kept trying to marry me off so they would have one less mouth to feed. I didn’t want to be married off, so I finally decided to go to China to find a better life.
I felt so sorry to my father for not being a good daughter. I left a letter for him to explain why I was leaving, and how much I loved him. I told him that I hoped to see him again someday. Next to the letter I also left behind my nicest clothes, hoping he could sell them to buy food. I sewed a secret pocket into my jacket and hid a photo of my family there, and under my shirt collar I hid enough opium to kill myself in case I was caught. The morning I left I didn’t want to raise any suspicion, so I casually said goodbye to my father and walked out like it was any normal day. I couldn’t stop crying as I walked away. I knew that I may never see my family again, especially my father, who had sacrificed so much to raise me.
I will never forget how cold it was at the river. I could feel the snow through my torn shoes and the wind blew through my thin jacket. I was shivering as I stood in the knee-deep snow, waiting for the chance to make my escape. I slid down the riverbank onto the ice. I could hear the ice cracking as I crawled on my stomach across the frozen river. I expected that at any minute, North Korean guards would see me escaping and shoot me. After I finally made it to the Chinese side, it took me hours to find the broker I was supposed to meet.
By the time I found her, my toes were frozen white. The broker took me to her home to rest and recover . But I soon realized I was trapped. She told me I had to repay her and the other brokers a lot of money for helping me escape. And, because I had no money, the only option was to be sold as a bride. I was scared that if I refused, the brokers would sell me to a brothel or I would be forced to work in online sex chatrooms. I also knew that if I ran away, I’d be caught by the Chinese police and sent back to North Korea to face imprisonment and torture.
I had no choice but to be sold as a bride. For three days, a broker paraded me around villages in northern China and crowds of men would gather to bid on me.
In the final village, I sat cowering in the corner of a house. My cheeks were still red from the night I had crossed the river. There were many older Chinese men walking around me, and staring at me. I stared at the floor to avoid looking into their eyes. I did not understand what they were saying, but I could tell they were talking about me. I felt so humiliated. I was treated like an animal in a zoo. The North Korean broker finally found a man who was willing to pay enough for me. I was sold for three thousand dollars. In that moment, I was overcome with hopelessness, sorrow, and loss. I felt like I was losing everything, including my own body, to someone I had just met.
I was only 18.
The man who bought me lived with his parents. They were afraid I would run away so they were always watching me. I was not even allowed to go to the bathroom without their permission. One morning, I started feeling sick so they took me to a local hospital.After some medical tests, the family brought me back to the house and everyone was smiling and talking. I was so confused. Someone called a North Korean woman who lived in my village and asked her to interpret the news for me. I was pregnant. As everyone celebrated, I felt even more hopeless.
This pregnancy would make my escape impossible. In North Korea, I had heard that if you jump off a high place or carry heavy things while you’re pregnant, you’ll have a miscarriage. So I tried to jump off the highest tree in the backyard, and carried around heavy buckets of water. But nine months later, I gave birth to a healthy baby daughter.
For the first few days after her birth, I didn’t even want to look at her. I was sorry and ashamed for feeling that way, but I couldn’t help resenting her. But as the days passed, my daughter began to recognize my face, and she would greet me with a big smile and open arms whenever I walked into the room. Her smile and joyful laughter began to melt away my troubles and hardships.
For the next two years, my daughter became my only reason to live.
Then one day, a North Korean woman who had also been sold into the same village introduced me to a South Korean man. He told me about South Korea, and the possibility of a free life, and said he offered to help me get there. But he warned me that the journey through China and Southeast Asia would be too dangerous for a young child. I was so torn. This was my chance to finally be free from this man and from the constant fear of being caught and sent back to North Korea. But how could I leave my child, the only joy in my life?
I was afraid I would never get an opportunity like this again , so I made the extremely difficult decision to go to South Korea, and I vowed to come back to China as soon as I could to get my daughter. In the early morning of my departure, I held my daughter in my arms as she slept and cried. I thought about the moment she would wake up and cry because I was not there. It reminded me of the day that my own mother had left me. I had felt so lonely and wondered for so long why she had abandoned me. I resented her for giving birth to me if she wasn’t interested in raising a child. And now I had to do the same thing to my own daughter.
I clenched my fists as hard as I could to hold back the tears, and I told the family I was making a trip to the market. I grabbed the bag of clothes I’d hid in the bush the day before, and headed to the bus station. I cried every day for the next three months thinking about my daughter. During my journey out of China, there were many nights when I woke up thinking I’d heard my daughter’s voice calling out “mommy.” One night, I didn’t want to wake everyone up so I went behind the curtain to cry, and I found another woman who was already there crying. She had also left her child behind to escape with my group. We sat behind that curtain in the safe house, weeping and hugging each other.
I finally made it to South Korea in 2013 with the help of Liberty in North Korea. I am currently in my last year of studying social work, and I want to devote my life to helping North Korean women who have endured the same trauma that I have. Although adjusting to a new society is difficult at times, I am determined to work hard so that one day I can bring my daughter to South Korea to be with me.
I should not be here today - I am one of the lucky ones.
At this very moment, women are being treated like a commodity and are being sold to older Chinese men. A recent report estimated that 60% of the North Korean female refugees in China are trafficked into the sex trade. 50% of those trafficked are forced into prostitution, 30% are in a forced marriage, and 15% are working in the cyber sex industry.
I am here as a survivor to share the darkest moments from my past so that I can help bring an end to the exploitation of other North Korean women refugees.
For North Korean women, escaping from North Korea is not the end of their journey but the beginning of their fight for freedom.
Please extend your love and give your support so that more North Korean people will find true freedom and safety. Thank you. I am grateful and hopeful. I am Joy.
See what life is like for North Korean women who are sold in China in the short film "Sleep Well, My Baby". Based on true stories from women rescued through LiNK.
Read Joy’s full journey from escaping North Korea to being sold in China, and finally reaching freedom through LiNK’s rescue routes in our 3-part series here!
