For seven years, Kim Seongmin has been facing a cancer that has spread to his lungs, brain and liver. Doctors recently gave him only months to live. He can’t sleep at night without painkillers.

Still, Kim broadcasts into North Korea twice a day, bringing its people news and information they are cut off from because of strict censorship laws.

"North Korea is keeping its people like frogs trapped in a deep well," ​said Kim​, 62, during an interview at his rural home on this island west of Seoul, where he records and edits shows for Free North Korea Radio. "We broadcast to help them realize that there is something wrong with their political system."