# Do people in North Korea have any access to non-North Korean propaganda **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 9, 2005, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-in-north-korea-have-any-access-to-non-north-korean-propaganda/303128 "2005-05-09T22:39:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2005, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-in-north-korea-have-any-access-to-non-north-korean-propaganda/303128/1 "2005-05-09T22:39:19Z")
In North Korea you can’t buy a radio or TV unless you get it from the government, and their radios and TVs are designed to only pick up north korean channels. The internet only has 1 ISP and books are banned. So do North Koreans have access to any information outside of state propaganda in any meaningful quantities (ie not just a handful of people living in their basements, but something that the majority of people have access to)? Is there a large black market for radios or pamphlets in North Korea? ---
**Author:** ![deevee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@deevee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deevee)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2005, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-in-north-korea-have-any-access-to-non-north-korean-propaganda/303128/2 "2005-05-10T00:41:10Z")
Given the penalties (gulag/death) and given the fact that freedom of thought is a luxury available only to those who are not slowly starving to death I would guess not. If the West is very limited in it’s knowledge of what happens inside the DPRK I would have to say the converse is also true. I have read accounts of Northerners who have escaped and relocated to the South and without exception they have a very difficult time adapting. If anyone would have access to outside propoganda it would be those with the means and wherewithal to escape, yet apparently they had none.