North Korean television sets still receive South Korean signals

Analogue television signals were switched off in South Korea at the start of the year, a fact that led to reports of disappointment on the part of a secret North Korean television audience who were not able to watch South Korean programming any longer. However, we have learned that this is not the case. According to our sources, the areas of North Korea that could receive South Korean broadcasts are continuing to receive them. In fact, areas that have a good reception are very popular and are even driving up house prices. In other words, the quality of incoming television signals from South Korea plays a significant role in deciding housing prices.

In South Korea, there have been instances of people departing from areas where the threat of attack from North Korea is thought to be significant, such as Yeonpyeong Island and other islands off the west coast of Incheon. Yet parts of Ongjin county in North Korea, which lies just across the West Sea from Yeonpyeong Island, are considered by North Koreans to be a desirable location because their proximity to South Korea results in better TV reception.

Kim Cheol Man* comes from Baecheon county near Kaesong, which is very close to the inter-Korean land border. He explains, “As we received good reception of South Korean television programming, visiting family members were envious. They even said they wanted to live with us.” As one would expect, Kim says that television signals are stronger at night than during the day.

The catchment area for South Korea television programming is larger than one would expect. Cheolsan district of Sariwon in North Hwanghae Province is another popular area due to its excellent reception to South Korean programming, despite the fact that it is not close to the inter-Korean border. Nor is it close to the sea, which is the factor that allows for good reception along the East Sea coast, as far north as Hamheung in South Hamgyong province.

Legally sanctioned televisions in North Korea operate on the PAL system, which is also used in places such as the United Kingdom. As a result, they cannot receive NTSC signals from South Korea out of the box (NTSC is the protocol used in the United States and Japan, among others). If Japanese televisions (which were NTSC enabled at the point of production) were imported, they were fixed by the North Korean government to receive PAL signals instead.

Nevertheless, some North Koreans quietly converted them back to NTSC in order to watch South Korean programming. When the volume of North Korean trade with China began to increase, Chinese television sets capable of receiving both PAL and NTSC signals began to enter the country. For this reason, it is in the last decade or so that South Korean television programming has become more widespread among North Koreans who lived in an area with reception.

Although the South Korean authorities switched off analogue broadcasting in line with the ‘move to digital’ that has been going on across the developed world, they are continuing to broadcast in analogue towards North Korea; the “Korean Wave” of cultural influence will probably continue to works its magic. In a phone interview, an anonymous government official confirmed, “We are maintaining television broadcasts to North Korea in the analogue format.”

In terms of radio, signals from the Far East Broadcasting Corp (FEBC) and the South Korean national broadcaster KBS are said to be the strongest in North Korea. FEBC reception is said to be particularly good, but because their content is mainly Christian and remains alien to the vast majority of North Koreans, they are not considered as very popular. The BBC World Service is said to be very popular among those who understand some English and can receive the signal.