North Korean trade officials stationed in China were able to learn about Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 U.S. presidential election in real time by watching South Korean media on their phones or computers, an official and a resident in China told Radio Fee Asia.
North Korea is closed off to the internet and anyone inside the isolated nation can only hear the heavily filtered news available in state-run broadcasts and newspapers.
But the trade officials, who are dispatched to China to earn badly needed foreign currency for the cash-strapped North Korean government, have access to the internet as a means to perform their duties.
They were able to watch the vote totals tallied in real time by accessing South Korean media coverage of Tuesday’s election.
“I woke up this morning and checked the news about the U.S. presidential election,” a North Korean official stationed in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang, who requested anonymity for safety reasons, told RFA Korean on Wednesday. “I searched for news reports from South Korea.”
The official said that he had lunch with colleagues who are managers of restaurants and cafes in the city, and they tuned in to South Korean TV news broadcasts covering the election on their phones.
“During the meal, we talked about how in the United States, a world power, citizens elect the president by voting for the candidate they like,” he said. “They didn’t say anything else, but they seemed envious of democratic elections.”
Another source in China who requested anonymity for security reasons told RFA that trade officials in China have office computers connected to the internet, so they can find the best prices of commodities, in order to buy them as cheaply as possible to be sent to North Korea.
On Wednesday, these officials watched the election play out at their desks, he said.
“The trade officials say that it is truly amazing how transparent and real-time the votes are being counted in each state in the U.S.,” he said. “They are particularly impressed by how South Korean media used maps to explain how the votes came in.”
Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.