The U.S. Ambassador Sung Kim has said radio broadcasts to North Korea could be one way to open up the country.

Speaking at a forum organized by the Far East Broadcasting Company in Seoul at Lotte Hotel on Thursday, Kim praised the Christian radio network’s “tireless efforts to promote religious freedom around the world.”

“The U.S. government has a strong commitment to promoting religious freedom so it is only natural that we have great respect for FEBC’s work,” Kim said. 

The broadcaster was first founded by a Christian missionary in 1956 and initially broadcasted to Russia, China and North Korea. It now delivers messages to many more countries around the world.

“Frankly there are no people today who need to hear the FEBC’s message more than the people of North Korea,” Kim added.

He said that broadcasting to the North could help achieve the U.S.’s desire to see the Pyongyang leadership move the country into the 21st century and to open up the system and economy.

“I think one way we can all work together to promote all of those goals is through radio broadcasts. Radio broadcasting to North Korea in fact enjoys very strong bipartisan support in Washington. The U.S. congress has appropriated significant funds precisely for this purpose.”

Kim said he had traveled to North Korea 13 times, but added that he had found these trips difficult to make.

“It is very difficult for me to travel to North Korea because as a Korean-American and as a diplomat it is very difficult to see the conditions there,” he said.

“The conditions there for the people of North Korea are awful. It is easy to forget that in the first half of the Cold War North Korea in fact had a larger economy than the South, inheriting substantial industrial infrastructure from the Japanese colonial era.

“Unfortunately, bad decisions have produced the terrible situation that we see today. What is really tragic is that we continue to see bad decisions coming out of Pyongyang.”

He said that the failed missile launch by the North proved that the Pyongyang regime was not yet ready for serious international engagement, and regretted that this had caused the U.S. to cancel aid planned for people living there.

The U.S. cancelled a promised 240,000 tons of food aid that was to go to children and pregnant women because of Pyongyang’s attempted rocket launch April 12. The North said that it was attempting to launch a satellite, but the move was condemned by the international community as a missile test that contravened U.N. conventions. The rocket crash landed in the ocean shortly after being launched.

During his keynote speech at the FEBC Far East Forum, Kim said that the South Korea-U.S. relationship was stronger than ever thanks to events such as the three visits made by U.S. President Barack Obama to Seoul, and the recently ratified free trade agreement.

He said cooperation between the two nations would be key to resolving North Korean issues such as denuclearization, missiles, human rights and humanitarian concerns.

By Kirsty Taylor (kirstyt@heraldcorp.com)