At their launch ceremony, held in downtown Seoul, South Korea, on Sept. 9, close to 100 NK Front members showed up in their uniforms.
Designed similarly to those of the South Korean special warfare command—only different in color—the uniforms carry two meanings: they represent the former identity of the wearers as former soldiers of North Korea, and they represent a pledge to help topple the Kim Jong Il regime if there is a war between the North and South.
Joining an armed battle is not their ultimate purpose, however, as they’ve already taken up a different form of war with the North Korean regime.
“NK soldiers can be main agents to change the NK regime if we deliver the true information of South Korea to them,” said NK Front Secretary-General Jang Se-yul during a Sept. 14 interview.
To achieve this, members of the NK Front wield telephones instead of guns—making regular calls to former colleagues who are still in the North Korean army, or who have already left it.
From the South, they make international calls to Chinese cell phones given to North Korean soldiers through brokers. The Chinese cell towers’ signal only penetrates about six miles into North Korea, so NK Front members make appointments with the soldiers on what times to meet via phone, and how often.
The soldiers they contact typically work as border guards or in the rocket launcher brigades deployed along the borders. Conversations sound as casual as questions such as, “How are you doing now?” but carry a deeper intention.
The NK Front members keep a checklist on facts the NK soldiers misunderstand, and then relay the facts to them.
According to Mr. Jang, this provides a “systemic inflow of information to change the soldiers.”
Flow of Information
In the time before the NK Front was established, many NK defectors in the South had taken up similar means to communicate with North Korean residents using Chinese cell phones. Mr. Jang estimates that thousands of such calls are made daily.
Many NK defectors try to systematically provide information from the outside world to North Korean residents. Radio stations, including Free North Korea Radio and Open Radio for North Korea, were established by NK defectors and broadcast news into the North to expose the Kim Jong Il regime and tell of the outside world.
Some NK groups even regularly send large balloons floating into the North, filled with leaflets, CDs, small radios, and one dollar bills.
The approach taken by the NK Front is unique since its focus is on current soldiers who play a pivotal role in maintaining the North Korean regime.
Even as food shortages and nationwide food rationing paralyze the North, the regime still provides food to the military. NK defectors claim that all the food that South Korea and the United States sent to starving residents in the North was distributed only to the military and communist cadres, with only a small portion leaking into the local markets.
“Because of hunger, soldiers cannot be trained well and some soldiers even run away,” Mr. Jang said. “In such circumstances, does the regime give rice to the residents? No, it doesn’t. We oppose food aid even if our parents and brothers are still living in the North, because the food aid will be used as to strengthen the power of the regime.”
Even so, the military’s food situation is not ideal. “Soldiers are better off than ordinary people but live from hand to mouth,” Mr. Jang said. “They are poorer than the middle class who are running the market. Soldiers’ wives are prohibited from going to market and doing business. If they do, they will be the target of the criticism.”
An Unstable Regime
Amid the economic distress, NK soldiers have complaints against the eventual takeover of the North by the youngest son of ailing dictator Kim Jong Il.
In 1980, Kim Jong Il was publicly acknowledged as the eventual successor to his father Kim Il Sung, who ruled the regime from its founding day in 1948, until his death in 1994.
“When Kim Jong Il took over power, there was widespread sentiment that it did not matter who would become successor as long as people could be better off,” Mr. Jang said. “Now because people have suffered severe economic distress for a long time with no signs of recovery, the soldiers are upset, saying, ‘What change can happen when power is passed on to the son?’”
Outside the barracks, North Korean soldiers who lost money to the Nov. 30, 2009, currency reform feel outraged against their “Dear Leader.”
Since soldiers cannot join the market, however, many avoided becoming victims of the reform, as the regime confiscated the savings and capital of private entrepreneurs and limited the amount of money that could be converted.
“Before the currency reform the residents felt proud of Kim Jong Il’s visit to their villages, but now when we ask about him, they [use] swear words,” Mr. Jang said.
According to Mr. Jang, the regime has maintained its control over its military and citizens through propaganda surrounding the sinking of the South Korean warship, Cheonan, which killed 46 South Korean soldiers.
“The North has spread the fear that South Korea or [the] USA may attack the North, shifting to a wartime posture so the regime can control people dissatisfied with the currency reform. Its strategy to overcome a crisis with a desperate method works,” Mr. Jang said.
Control Through Surveillance
The North Korean regime controls its citizens through ubiquitous surveillance—something that Mr. Jang has experienced firsthand.
He became a mathematics professor after completing his military service. The North has adopted a draft system for recruiting soldiers, so most healthy men in the country have to serve in the army for 10 years.
“At that time, I heard that people saw the South Korean dramas. When one of my colleagues suggested to me that he had CDs and could lend them for one night, I became curious,” Mr. Jang said. “I assembled five colleagues who were close to me, and we watched that drama all night long in the isolated house with all the doors closed.”
He added, “But the next day a member of the Security State Department (SSD) [North Korean secret service agency] summoned all of us. I realized that there was a spy of SSD among us, but even now I don’t know who the spy was, because the spy was also punished together [with us].”
The identity of spies cannot be revealed because if a group is caught, the spies are punished along with them. If they report someone to the SSD, they are treated like criminals and are sent together with them to concentration camps and labor camps, but their families get benefits for their service.
“This is why the regime doesn’t collapse even though millions have starved to death, and hundreds of thousands have escaped the North” said Mr. Jang.
As punishment, he was sent to a province near the border with China, and worked as an engineer. After one year, four of his colleagues returned to their previous positions, and he assumed the spy was among them.
Later, Mr. Jang was told that he could not return to his position because he was the leader of the incident. He was infuriated. “They made me wretched only because I saw one soap drama. I felt defiant and began to see South Korean dramas. It was not difficult to get CDs,” Mr. Jang said.
“Seeing the dramas, I thought that in South Korea there exist many choices. They can go wherever they want to go. Then I began to think of my only child. Because of my bad background, he cannot be selected as a communist member or cadre,” he said.
The decision to leave was not easy, as Mr. Jang could not leave his mother and brothers. Yet, another incident made him determined to escape.
After the 2007 elections, the manager of his team disappeared. After a feud with the only candidate to represent the province, the manager had refused to mark the voting ballot in protest.
“After half a month, his family also disappeared,” Mr. Jang said. “I was so shocked at the news. I said goodbye to my mother, saying I was leaving for a business trip and crossed the border with my 12-year-old son.”
In the years following the end of the Korean War, which lasted from 1950 to 1953, 20,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea. Most have come within the last 10 years. Mr. Jang estimates that out of all those defecting, 3,000 are former soldiers. Three hundred of those former soldiers are registered members of the NK People’s Liberation Front.
“My wife told me that the worst blunder that I ever made is that I did not bring her here when she was younger. My wife and son like their lives here more than I do,” Mr. Jang said.
“I feel a bit stressed over social status,” he added. “Among NK defectors there are many intellectuals. NK Front staff are all college graduates. My dream is to come back to my previous job, teaching mathematics again. I wish that the unification would come quickly. So I’m wearing the military uniform to realize that dream.”
