END OF RFA, VOA NK BROADCASTS LIKELY TO INCREASE JAMMING OF OTHER BROADCASTS
President Donald Trump’s March 14 executive order curtailing the operations of the US government-operated broadcasters Radio Free Asia (RFA) and Voice of America (VOA) has already led to the end of VOA’s 7 hours of daily radio programs into North Korea. Experts predict RFA’s 9 hours of North Korean broadcasts will also soon be cancelled. But the end of the RFA and VOA broadcasts may only be the beginning of a new wave of problems for the remaining broadcasters reaching North Korea.
That’s the word from Pastor Eric Foley, CEO of Voice of the Martyrs Korea. He says his organization carefully tracks the efforts by the North Korean government to jam the four 30-minute Christian broadcasts Voice of the Martyrs Korea airs into North Korea each day. He says that the cancellation of one broadcast often leads to more jamming efforts by North Korea on the remaining broadcasts.
“The RFA and VOA broadcast signals have long been among the strongest ones going into North Korea,” says Pastor Foley. “With 16 hours of daily broadcasts on those signals, they have consistently been targets of North Korean jamming. That’s drawn a lot of fire away from the rest of us. Unfortunately, the cancellations will free up a lot of resources that North Korea can use in their efforts to jam the remaining broadcasts.”
A Voice of the Martyrs Korea volunteer records a sermon by an early Korean Christian for the ministry’s daily radio broadcast into North Korea.
Pastor Foley says that his organization saw an increase in jamming when it went from five daily broadcasts to four a year ago. “Voice of the Martyrs Korea receives no funds from governments or government-funded sources, but a drop in sponsorship a year ago led us to have to cancel one of our broadcasts,” says Pastor Foley. “We could see how North Korea re-allocated the jamming resources they had formerly used on our fifth broadcast to launch even more attacks on our remaining four broadcasts.”
Pastor Foley says his organization and most other broadcasters do not publish jamming statistics for security reasons, but he says his team studies the statistics, along with the best practices among broadcasters for dealing with signal jamming. He says he believes four things will be key for Voice of the Martyrs Korea and other remaining North Korean broadcasters as they prepare for the possibility of significant additional jamming.
“Signal strength, signal flexibility, live program monitoring, and prayer,” says Pastor Foley. He says that while Voice of the Martyrs Korea broadcasts on a powerful signal, the signal strength must be accompanied by a broadcast team monitoring each broadcast while it is on the air and reviewing any jamming efforts after each broadcast is complete. “Jamming often affects only a few minutes of a broadcast,” says Pastor Foley. “By analyzing each program’s results, we can anticipate future jamming patterns. We also regularly move programs to different frequencies on the radio dial in order to minimize the impact of jamming.”
He says that North Korean listeners are accustomed to scanning the radio dial in order to find their favorite programs, so changing frequencies is less disruptive than in countries with less censorship.
A VOMK staff member edits the Voice of the Martyrs Korea radio broadcasts.
Pastor Foley says that Voice of the Martyrs Korea will not be changing its broadcast content even with the disappearance of the RFA and VOA signals. “Analysts know that Christian broadcasts are among the most jammed broadcasts into North Korea,” says Pastor Foley. “The news and information that VOA and RFA provided was important. But the content we provide every day—Bible reading, recordings of the sermons of the early Korean Christians, hymns that teach biblical truths—transforms people and nations. That’s why our programs are always targeted for jamming by North Korea.”
Pastor Foley says that even though increased jamming presents new challenges for his organization to overcome, he considers the jamming efforts a good sign.
“Increased jamming means that the broadcasts are working,” says Pastor Foley.
Pastor Foley says that Voice of the Martyrs Korea has received confidential reports from radio industry sources that as many as 10% of the North Korean population may have been exposed to its broadcasts. Pastor Foley says that North Korean defectors arriving in South Korea will sometimes comment to Voice of the Martyrs staff about the broadcasts.
Individuals interested in hearing the Voice of the Martyrs Korea daily radio broadcasts into North Korea can listen online, at http://www.podbbang.com/ch/1768188. More information about Voice of the Martyrs Korea’s North Korea radio broadcasts is available at www.vomkorea.com/en/radio. Individuals interested in helping to prepare the broadcasts can contact Voice of the Martyrs Korea at 02-2065-0703.