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By Nicole Gaouette - Wed May 09 22:56:31 GMT 2012

Pedro Ugarte via Getty Images

A North Korean woman checks a computer a at music software company in Pyongyang.

A North Korean woman checks a computer a at music software company in Pyongyang. Photographer: Pedro Ugarte via Getty Images

North Koreans are increasingly able to access global media and other information, loosening the regimes iron grip on their knowledge and potentially bringing far-reaching changes to the so-called hermit kingdom.

Interviews with refugees, travelers and defectors reveal that North Koreans are using illegal Chinese mobile phones, DVDs, computers and small flash drives to work around official barriers to outside information, according to a report being released today. The interviews, conducted over a decade by the Washington-based consulting group InterMedia, show the information environment has undergone significant changes since the 1990s.

North Korea has long sealed itself off from the world, with an official state ideology of juche, or self-reliance, and a narrative that pits a resilient regime against a hostile world. That narrative, and the isolation that has allowed it to flourish, are beginning to crack as new information penetrates the North, InterMedia said.

Positive perceptions of the outside world can call into question many of the North Korean regimes most central propaganda narratives, which legitimate the regime by portraying it as the countrys protector from hostile outside forces, according to the report, which was funded by the U.S. State Department.

The changes in information access are creating a more aware citizenry and a greater space between North Korean citizens and their leaders and between the regimes portrayal of North Korea and the prevailing reality on the ground, according to the report, titled A Quiet Opening: North Koreans in a Changing Media Environment.

The report noted that the changes taking place in North Korea so far are very small and there is little hope for any near-term grassroots pushback against the regime headed by Kim Jong Un, grandson of state founder Kim Il Sung.

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North Korea’s Control of Media Breached by Technology