Soaps and dramas may achieve change in North Korea more than military force, defector says

Carol Morello, Washington Post

Image from article, with caption: Former North Korean deputy ambassador to Britain Thae Yong-ho testified Wednesday before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He has urged an information campaign over miitary force

Excerpt:

Kim Jong Un’s iron grip on the North Korean people is weakening, and an information campaign rooted in soap operas and dramas could help advance a civilian uprising, a prominent defector told a congressional panel Wednesday. ...

[H]is most intriguing proposal is that Washington spend more money to finance television programming extolling the virtues of freedom, democracy and human rights.

“We cannot change the policy of terror of the Kim Jong Un regime,” he said. “But we can educate the North Korean population to stand up by disseminating outside information.

“The U.S. is spending billions of dollars to cope with the military threat,” he added. “And yet how much does the U.S. spend each year on information activities involving North Korea? . . . Unfortunately, it may be a tiny fraction.”

Thae said programming tailor-made to North Korean audiences would help change the mind set in a country where children bow to portraits of Kim Jong Un, and thank him for their daily milk and apples during the harvest season.

“The regime established stupid brainwashing that depicted Kim Jong Un as the god,” he said. “We should try to concentrate our efforts to educate people that Kim Jong Un is not a god. He is just a normal human being. We should touch the Achilles’ heel of Kim Jong Un.”