​Information is key - it must flow both ways.

My one and only talking point:

"Unification first, then denuclearization, the path to unification is through information and human rights."

Voices Dec. 19, 2025 / 12:17 PM

Why South Korea must not restrict information about the North

By David Maxwell

https://www.upi.com/Voices/2025/12/19/perspective-north-korea-information-unrestricted/8141766162270/

People watch the news at a station in Seoul in October the launch by North Korea of several ballistic missiles towards the east File Photo by Jeon Heon-kyun

Dec. 19 (UPI) -- President Lee Jae Myung seeks to allow Koreans in the South to read, listen to and watch information from North Korea. It is the right thing to do.

South Korea is a confident democracy. It should act like one. That means it must not fear information about North Korea. It must not restrict it. It must not presume its citizens are weak, gullible, or unable to judge propaganda for what it is.

A mature society does not protect itself by hiding facts. It protects itself by building citizens who can weigh evidence, reject lies and make sound judgments. Restricting access to North Korean media signals doubt about the Korean people in the South. It also concedes, in principle, that propaganda is stronger than lived experience. That is a bad assumption and a worse message.

National Security Act has produced strategic damage

The National Security Act, especially Article 7, was shaped by an earlier era. Its logic was deterrence through denial. But in practice, it has denied South Koreans direct exposure to the North and created a gap in public understanding.

This has not strengthened resilience. It has produced ignorance. Ignorance breeds apathy. Over time, that apathy erodes support for human rights in North Korea and weakens the case for unification.

When authority prohibits something, it increases its appeal. This is basic human behavior. For young people, a ban can make North Korean content feel taboo and therefore worth chasing.

That dynamic does not inoculate society against North Korean influence. It invites fascination. It gives the regime an artificial mystique. It also encourages conspiracy thinking, because what is hidden is assumed to contain dangerous truth.

Exposure demystifies the regime, defeats Its narrative

If South Koreans were given full access, there would be a surge of curiosity. People would read Rodong Sinmun. They would watch the broadcasts. They would sample the spectacle. Then the novelty would fade. They would see the repetition, the lies and the hollow claims. They would recognize that the North Korean system cannot compete with reality.

The likely outcome is not radicalization. It is boredom, rejection and sharper clarity about the morally and intellectually bankrupt nature of the Kim family regime.

The idea that reading North Korean propaganda could turn South Koreans into pro-North supporters misunderstands South Korea. People who live with freedom, dignity and opportunity do not abandon it because they read a newspaper from a dictatorship. They can compare. They can judge. They can reject.

The problem is not that South Koreans are too weak to resist propaganda. The problem is that many are not permitted to see the North clearly enough to care.

Information access rebuilds support for human rights, unification

Many young South Koreans have limited knowledge of the North -- not its ideology, not its daily life, not its internal control and not the human rights reality. When people cannot see injustice, they struggle to feel urgency about it. Over time, that becomes indifference. Indifference becomes a political fact. Support for unification declines. Support for human rights advocacy shrinks.

Access is not a luxury. It is a prerequisite for empathy and strategic clarity.

President Lee's comment on the fear of citizens becoming "commies" captures the core issue. Such a fear is not just mistaken. It is disrespectful. It treats citizens as if they are passive recipients rather than rational decision-makers. A free society cannot flourish on that assumption.

Trust is not naive. It is a strategic asset. It strengthens legitimacy at home and confidence abroad.

Strategic influence: what openness signals to Koreans in the North

There is also a strategic effect that reaches into the North. A former North Korean People's Army soldier described watching the South Korean drama, Crash Landing On You, and drawing a key conclusion. He did not only see a story. He saw confidence. He saw that South Korean society could portray Koreans in the North as human beings, not monsters, and it could do so without fear.

That mattered to him because it revealed something true. The South does not need censorship to sustain legitimacy. The Kim family regime does. The North survives by isolating its people and controlling the narrative. The South thrives by doing the opposite. That contrast is not abstract. It shapes perceptions. It influences choices. It encourages a desire for freedom.

Information must flow both ways

South Korea should not only allow access to information about the North. It should also protect and enable the flow of information into the North. Facts, truth, practical knowledge, outside news and entertainment all carry strategic weight. They expose lies. They provide alternatives. They make people think. They show what normal life looks like.

The ROK government and the U.S. government should treat this as a sustained campaign of truth, not a sporadic gesture.

Bottom line

South Korea should not restrict any information about the North. Restrictions weaken understanding, reduce empathy, and erode support for human rights and unification. Openness does the opposite. It demystifies the regime, strengthens democratic legitimacy and creates strategic influence effects that reach the Korean people in the North.

A free and unified Korea will not be achieved by shielding citizens from reality. It will be achieved by trusting them with it.



David Maxwell, executive director of the Korean Regional Review, is a retired U.S. Army Special Forces colonel who has spent more than 30 years in the Asia-Indo-Pacific region. He specializes in Northeast Asian security affairs and irregular, unconventional and political warfare. He is vice president of the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy and a senior fellow at the Global Peace Foundation, where he works on a free and unified Korea. After he retired, he became associate director of the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University. He is on the board of directors of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea and the OSS Society and is the editor at large for the Small Wars Journal.