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Date : November 30, 2015
Radio broadcasts encourage Party cadres to compare notes
   http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk01500&num=13566 [922]
More Workers Party cadres in North Korea are tuning into banned radio broadcasts beamed in from other countries on a regular basis, and with this comes growing awareness about the differences between the North Korean leadership and the outside world, Daily NK has learned. 

Party cadres secretly listen in on radio broadcasts and compare news from there with whats reported in newspapers published for cadre members, so they can get a better grip on international affairs, a source in North Hamgyong Province told Daily NK on Tuesday. Once you start comparing things with normal countries, its only natural you end up criticizing, to some degree, how abnormal things are. 

Two additional sources in Kangwon Province corroborated this news. 

Party cadres who take the train to go on business trips often find themselves sitting around and drinking because the trains stop due to power shortages. This is when you can hear them complain a bit about the leadership, the source explained 

One of the first things they talk about once they get drunk is the shortage in electricity. It starts with the question of why the country still has so little power despite the completion of the power plant up in Baekdu, and it ends with people saying the country will never become what it claims it will. 

The chronic power shortage in the North more than often slams the brakes on train operations, creating demand among passengers for drinks and food, which is now supplied by vendors in major cities. This is when such conversations often take place among cadres stuck on the tracks. 

Women get onboard the train after it has stopped and sell noodles and other simple dishes, as well as alcohol and water; kkotjebi (North Koreas population of homeless children) also crowd into the train and sell water," the source said.

These scenes mingle with the deluge of outside information cadres absorb while illicitly tuning into radio broadcasts from beyond North Korea's borders, spurring the passage of more in-depth reflections between travel companions. According to the source, the discussion frequently veers towards talk of the ubiquitous nature of market activity in modern North Korea, where the population has long since dropped expectations that the state will provide for it. 


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