North Korea Subversion and Protests (or lack of)

Today I get to combine social movements with North Korea - two concepts rarely put together in the same sentence.

I attended Andrei Lankov's CFR presentation, "How to Make Subversive Engagement with North Korea Work." Examples of subversive engagement include the following: expose DPRK to the outside world, promote the flow of Western goods ideas, products, broadcast radio programs, support projects which enable interaction between North Koreans and outsiders), how do we enable outside forces to intersect with insiders who are trying to promote regime change. Access is difficult

My question for Andrei was how one translates discontent with the regime (which Andrei insists there is plenty of) into political action in the absence of any true civil society, associational life, or organizations such as independent labor unions. Subversive engagement succeeded in Eastern Europe during the Cold War thanks to the existence of civil society and mobilizing structures such as the Catholic Church. However, in the DPRK, we will not likely see an Arab Spring-like unrest because of1) closed political opportunities; 2) no mobilizing structures; 3) no apparent leadership

Since North Koreans can't be mobilized yet, the best hope is to continue flooding NK with information and perhaps take advantage of the expertise of defectors/refugees who may be able to help organize political protests inside the DPRK. The problem with this plan is that its more of a long term strategy. In the meantime, thousands more may die out of hunger or abuse.