New agent of change in N. Korea: cellphones

Cellphones by now are in common use in Sinuiju, the North Korean city across the Yalu River from Dandong, the major Chinese center through which China does much of its trade with the North. They're also widely used along the Tumen River border in the east, and advances in technology now mean callers can occasionally reach contacts as far south as the capital, Pyongyang.

It was only last year that North Korea legalized cellphones, at least among the elite in the capital, after they had been in use illegally for several years. Now that they are illegal again, the only people who can use them legally are high-level officials and the political police.

"People make calls mostly for business," says Kim Kwang Tae, a South Korean journalist who recently visited Dandong, "but some use them for reunions of family members." Indeed, he says, those who have cellphones lend them, for a fee, to North Koreans eager to call relatives who have fled to China - or made it to South Korea at the time of the Korean War more than half a century ago.

"I've called North Koreans on cellphones from Japan," says Professor Tsutomu. "We talked about 10 minutes each time." The conversations "were secret," says Tsutomu, a critic of North Korea's regime. "I cannot say what we discussed."

Although most cellphone calls would probably not compromise security, some cellphone callers are voicing the kind of dissent that could land them in a North Korean prison. "Some people spread some negative news to outside people," says Kim. "One Chinese businessman who was living in Pyongyang said reform will not make much difference unless the leadership changes."

Dissemination of such views - not to mention actual coordination among factions plotting against the government - could pose a threat to a regime already roiled by recent high-level defections and purges, say South Korean analysts.

Kim Jong Il himself has been absent from public view for three months - prompting speculation that he's feeling insecure as he resists pressure for another round of six-party talks (with the US, China, Japan, Russia, and South Korea) on the North's nuclear program.

Kim Moon Soo, a conservative member of South Korea's National Assembly, is quick to make a connection between the cellphone revolution and a real one.

"I'm aware many defectors and refugees are using cellphones," he says. "North Korea has banned the use of cellphones, but since you can hide them easily, and many Chinese use them, it's not easy to detect them."

Clearly, "something strange is going on in North Korea," says the legislator. "A lot of North Koreans are not happy under dictatorship and are not well off, so loyalty for Kim Jong Il's regime has lessened, and they are beginning to yearn for the outside world. The leadership is having a hard time controlling people through food distributions, prison camps, and executions."

Under the circumstances, he says, "cellphones are a threat for the leadership."

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