The extraordinary process of secretly interviewing people inside North Korea

In the dormant of the night, 2 North Koreans conscionable successful secret. One is an mean North Korean national who has agreed to hazard each to beryllium interviewed by the BBC. The different is simply a source, moving for an organisation successful South Korea to leak accusation retired of the country.

At a unafraid determination that cannot beryllium bugged, the root relays 1 of our questions to the national and notes down the answer. Later, erstwhile it is safe, they volition nonstop it backmost to us, successful aggregate instalments. Sending adjacent 1 afloat reply astatine a clip is excessively risky.

North Koreans are forbidden from talking to anyone extracurricular the country, particularly journalists, and if the authorities finds retired they person done so, they could beryllium killed.

But erstwhile the borderline was unopen successful January 2020, successful effect to the coronavirus pandemic, a state that was already hard to study connected became virtually impenetrable.

All the sources that journalists would ordinarily trust connected to relay what was happening connected the crushed dried up, arsenic overseas diplomats and assistance workers near the country. It besides became astir intolerable for North Koreans to flight and stock their experiences.

At the aforesaid time, determination was bully crushed to fishy the borderline closure was causing radical important suffering, based connected our cognition of however radical successful North Korea marque their surviving and get their food. Then, past year, we started to get unconfirmed reports of terrible nutrient shortages and imaginable starvation.

This is wherefore we decided to instrumentality specified bonzer measures, to interrogation 3 mean North Koreans wrong the country.

First, we sought proposal from those who enactment intimately with North Koreans and recognize the risks. Sokeel Park, from the organisation Liberty successful North Korea, who has been moving with escapees for much than a decade, was of the presumption this was an important and worthwhile undertaking, successful spite of the risks.

"There is not a azygous North Korean who won't recognize the danger, and if radical privation to bash this, I deliberation we should respect that," helium told us. "Every speech with radical wrong North Korea, each titbit of information, is truthful valuable, due to the fact that we cognize truthful little," helium said.

But to bash this, we could not enactment alone. We teamed up with a quality organisation successful South Korea, Daily NK, that has a web of sources wrong the country. These sources recovered america radical who wanted to beryllium interviewed. Aware we would lone beryllium getting a snapshot of beingness wrong the country, we chose to talk to radical of varying ages from antithetic areas.

We explained what the BBC was, and however acold and wide their interviews would beryllium seen and heard, and they gave their consent.

"They are looking guardant to telling the satellite however atrocious the concern is successful North Korea," said Daily NK's editor-in-chief Lee Sang-yong. "They anticipation the planetary assemblage volition instrumentality notice."

Mr Lee has been moving with his sources for 13 years to smuggle accusation retired of North Korea. He assured america that his methods of connection were robust. He was assured helium could support radical harmless but warned that the process would instrumentality time.

As we waited, determination were moments we disquieted we mightiness not get capable information. What if we received one-line answers - possibly not adjacent capable to report? This was the gamble.

But erstwhile we yet collated the messages, we were blown distant by the level of detail. People revealed acold much than we had expected, and the concern was worse than we had imagined. It pointed to a dire humanitarian and quality rights concern unfolding successful the country, and chronic nutrient shortages.

We past acceptable astir verifying arsenic overmuch arsenic we could. Helpfully, our 3 interviewees corroborated each other. They each cited the aforesaid quarantine rules and the aforesaid caller laws which frightened them. They each spoke astir the scarcity of nutrient and medicine, and had experienced progressively terrible crackdowns and punishments. They adjacent shared galore of the aforesaid hopes and fears.

But determination were besides illuminating differences. It appeared determination was much authorities enactment successful the superior Pyongyang than successful the borderline towns, but besides much control, surveillance and fearfulness determination - which was successful enactment with what we had expected.

Our adjacent measurement was to instrumentality our interviews to NK Pro, a quality work successful Seoul which monitors North Korea. One of the lone remaining sources of accusation connected North Korea is the country's ain state-run paper and TV channel. While overmuch of the contented is propaganda, NK Pro's authorities media adept Chung Seung-yeon monitors this daily, combing it for clues arsenic to what is truly happening successful the country.

"We deliberation of North Korea arsenic a precise concealed state. Certainly, they ne'er talk loudly astir their problems, but they driblet hints," she said. And erstwhile they really notation a problem, arsenic they person done with the nutrient crisis, this means it's "a truly large deal", she explained.

She showed america 1 quality study from February successful which North Korean enactment members were praised for donating atom to the government. "That the authorities is receiving atom from its people, shows america however hopeless the nutrient concern is," she pointed out.

With Ms Chung's assistance we were besides capable to corroborate galore of the quarantine and lockdown rules our interviewees had cited, and the caller laws and punishments that had been introduced.

To corroborate different details, we analysed the disposable information connected nutrient prices and trade, and viewed outer images of the border. We combed the texts of caller laws that had been smuggled retired the country, portion cross-referencing our interviews with reports from the South Korean government, the UN, and different sources, until we were assured that our interviews - portion not broad - provided reliable snapshots of beingness successful North Korea.

As overmuch arsenic we person published, determination are galore details we person held back, to support our interviewees. But done their bravery, we cognize truthful overmuch much astir the concern successful North Korea than we did before.

"The satellite has not realised however atrocious things are for the North Korean radical close now," said Sokeel Park. "These interviewees are not the afloat picture. In aboriginal years, we'll astir apt larn successful extent conscionable however hard this play has been," helium said.

When we past checked successful with our interviewees, done Daily NK, they were each safe.