North Korea’s Radio Signals to South Korea Suddenly Cut Off: What’s Behind the Move?

North Korea’s Kim Jong Un inspects essential military factory / Yonhap News

North Korea is swiftly implementing Kim Jong Un’s directive to alter the path of unification and restructure institutions that face South Korea.

As of the 13th, North Korea’s state-run radio station, Pyongyang Broadcasting, which is aimed at South Korea, has ceased its broadcasts. It has not been received since the previous afternoon, and access to the National Solidarity website, associated with Pyongyang Broadcasting, is also unavailable.

Pyongyang Broadcasting has long been operated by North Korea’s institutions that engage with South Korea. The suspension of broadcasts appears to be part of the broader restructuring of these South-facing institutions.

For decades, North Korea used Pyongyang Broadcasting as a medium to disseminate content inciting a “people’s democratic revolution” aimed at South Korean residents. This radio station was also known for its practice of reading random numbers after extolling Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il at midnight, effectively conveying orders to spies in the South. The random number broadcasts ceased after the June 15th South-North Summit in 2000 but resumed in 2016, featuring messages like “We will now inform you of the physics review assignments for the 27th exploration team members: Page 178 No. 99, Page 78 No. 40…”

North Korea has also initiated restructuring various institutions and groups that engage in civilian exchanges with South Korea. The Korean Central News Agency reported that on the 12th, officials gathered to implement Comrade Kim Jong Un’s policy of changing South Korea’s approach, as suggested during the 9th plenary meeting of the 8th Central Committee of the Party.

At this meeting, it was decided to reorganize various related organizations, including the North Side Committee for the Implementation of the June 15th Joint Declaration, which emerged as a solidarity organization aimed at improving North-South relations and peaceful unification, the North Side Headquarters of the National Alliance for the Unification of the Fatherland, the National Reconciliation Council, and the Dangun National Unification Council.

The communication revealed that officials at the gathering expressed “high enthusiasm and an iron will to crush the reckless anti-republic confrontation of the traitorous faction by thoroughly implementing Comrade Kim Jong Un’s anti-enemy struggle policy.”

Kim Jong Un declared at the end of last year that the North-South relationship is “a hostile war state” and that “unification cannot be achieved anytime soon.” Consequently, he directed the restructuring of South-facing institutions.

In response, the reorganization of these institutions began on January 1st, led by Foreign Minister Choi Sun-hee. It is believed that efforts are underway to absorb the Workers’ Party’s Unification Front Department into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The North Side Committee for implementing the June 15th Joint Declaration was established after the June 15th South-North Summit in 2000, while South Side Committees and Overseas Committees also exist. The National Alliance for the Unification of the Fatherland was created as a unification movement organization in the South, North, and overseas in 1990.

The National Reconciliation Council, established in 1998, is an external organization of the Workers’ Party and serves as a counterpart to the South’s National Reconciliation Cooperation Council, established at the same time. The Dangun National Unification Council was founded in 1997 and has focused on national legitimacy and unification issues.

Meanwhile, the “We Are One” section emphasized unification and disappeared from the external propaganda website My Country, using the North Korean national domain (.kp). North Korea’s South-facing propaganda websites such as Uriminzokkiri, Echo of Unification, Ryugyong, Today’s Korea, and Ryomyong, which utilize the .com domain, have been inaccessible since the 11th, indicating that they might be undergoing closure and restructuring in tandem with the changes in South-facing institutions.