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VillageOfJoy claims that:

14 Interesting Facts about North Korea

  1. You can’t turn off the government radio installed in your home, only reduce the volume. [...]

There are many of web-sites with similar claims: 1, 2.

This photo by photographer Eric Lafforgue purports to be an example of such a radio.

Is this true now? Did it used to be true? What sort of messages are/were sent over these radios?

I am not sure if it is technically a radio or rather a speaker. Most areas are not connected to the electricity grid. And I could not find telegraph poles on aereal pictueres yet, so it is interesting how this things work. Perhaps a fixed frequency radio on batteries is included.

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This may be tricky to answer definitively. North Korean laws are unlikely to be easily available on the web. I look forward to seeing how people tackle this one. – Oddthinking♦ Dec 25 '12 at 12:54
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The website that you cite don't make the claim that every home has a radio. RationalWiki points to people in town and cities (as opposed to villages) having such radio's. – Christian Dec 25 '12 at 17:04
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seems to come straight out of 1984... – ratchet freak Dec 25 '12 at 23:51
... or Brazil :) – nico Dec 26 '12 at 13:51
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A more interesting claim might be the existence of a radio that is unaffected by having its power supply cut. that would be radical. – matt_black Dec 27 '12 at 18:04
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1 Answer

up vote 5 down vote

Does every North Korean home have a radio ...

No,

Bar graph showing access to media in N Korea

North Koreans in a changing media environment

... that can't be turned off?

A commenter to the linked photo

Radio photo by Eric Lafforgue
says

well, In South Korea, those kind of speakers in apartment home only use for public announcement of apartment managing office. but in north korea, government took control to whole apartment....

So, to speculate a little: the pictured N korean home "radio" is probably also not a radio receiver but a loudspeaker for a communal system for relaying announcements. To be of value in emergencies, such loudspeaker units would probably not be equipped with an off-switch.

N Korean farm
Photo by AP photographer David Guttenfelder

A communal farm compound near Kaesong ... Ordinary North Koreans rarely have access to electricity

Daily Mail

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What if they use batteries? You need to cite that the answer is no - not deduce it from something else. – Sklivvz♦ Dec 26 '12 at 11:31
@Skliwz: answer updated to avoid the thorny problem of providing evidence that battery powered radios can have the batteries removed. – RedGrittyBrick Dec 26 '12 at 12:33
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Fascinating reading! Via the references, I found the Korea Institute for National Unification's White Paper on Human Rights in North Korea 2012: "All radio frequencies are fixed to the official broadcasting service channels and sealed. If the seal is found broken, the person involved is assumed to be guilty of listening to South Korean or other foreign broadcasting services and is treated as a political prisoner." (It explains this law is circumvented.) I speculate this has been transmogrified from "can't re-tune" to "can't turn off". – Oddthinking♦ Dec 26 '12 at 12:41
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Your link North Koreans in a changing media environment was very interesting. Although the number of 250 asked people are not many for a statistic. – Jonas Stein Dec 26 '12 at 13:02
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I grew up in USSR and was fascinated by electronics; we had a "radio" in our flat which, upopn disassembly, proved to be nothing more than a speaker, a variable resistor, and a two-pronged plug for connecting it to the signal. My grandma had a similar radio but this one was hard-wired and not un-pluggable (but the resistor had an "off" position). My friends report similar system all across Russia; lots of people still have them installed. So no, these devices do not require batteries, but I do realise I'm only providing anecdotal evidence here... – romkyns Jan 10 at 18:38
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