Trump Impact

On ‘Radio Times:’ Smuggling the ‘Titanic’ in North Korea

Newsworks Staff

August 15, 2017

In this March 13, 2016 photo, a propaganda billboard that reads: "Party is calling. Everybody to the 70-day campaign" stands at the Hungnam Fertilizer Complex in Hungnam, south Hamgyong Province, North Korea. (AP Photo/Kim Kwang Hyon)

North Korea has isolated its nearly 25 million citizens from much of the world. There are no civil rights, the economy is barely functioning, many are food insecure, the Internet is mostly inaccessible and foreign media is banned.

Radio Times’ guest Suzanne Scholte, president of the Defense Forum Foundation, is a human rights activist for North Koreans.

On Tuesday morning’s show, Marty Moss-Coane asked Scholte about the risks North Koreans take to get information about the outside world including movies and soap operas.

“People are so hungry for information,” Scholte said. “The movie Titanic became a sensation in North Korea. I know defectors who were almost arrested for watching that movie.”

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“That movie was a life changing experience for a lot of North Koreans because they never conceptualized the idea of sacrificing oneself for love.”

Listen to the full conversation on Radio Times.

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