Seoul ( CNN ) -- The world knows North Korea for its loud and over-the-top warmongering rhetoric about the U.S . But the true war is being fought in whispers , across secret phone lines and smuggled radios . And it 's those whispers that reveal how close the peninsula may be to an actual war . `` North Koreans want to go to war soon and unite the country . They want to get out of their difficult lives through war , '' said Kim Seong Min , with Free North Korea Radio . `` North Koreans are not getting any information from the outside world . They think they will win if a war breaks out . '' Kim is a foot soldier in the propaganda war . He hopes to turn North Korea 's people against the regime , broadcasting a message of democracy over the radio . He records commentaries and news bulletins that are blasted over a shortwave radio frequency . In his job , he speaks to paid sources who slip him information via Chinese mobile phones at the border . He also has sources within the elite Pyongyang military ranks . Kim says the angry war rhetoric is a product of Kim Jong Un 's weak standing as a new leader . `` Kim Jong Un is not even 30 years old and everyone in North Korea knows this . He also does n't have a solid position within the army . North Koreans are also not sure how to handle the fact that their leader is so young . '' That 's similar to what defectors are telling the Daily NK , an online news site based in Seoul funded by a U.S. endowment . The Daily NK also has sources within the military elite and the general North Korean population . `` The sources we 're hearing from are exhausted with the drills and the mobilization of the masses . Some feel nationalistic pride that comes with the rhetoric out of North Korea . At the same time , they 're aware of the stagnant economy on the decline and the real need for change and opening , '' says Daily NK 's Gregory Pence . Pence is a Chicago native who came to Seoul as a Fulbright scholar . He stayed to work on the mission of opening up North Korea 's human rights abuses to the international community . Pence says opinions at the Daily NK , which is staffed with North Korean defectors , vary . But many at the publication fear that poor decisions can be made in times of fear . What will hold back war , Pence believes , is regime preservation . `` North Korea risks outright annihilation . If a war broke out and escalated , it would cost the peninsula , the world , '' Pence adds . `` In the end , North Korea would not exist . And the leadership is aware of that . ''
True war on North Korean Peninsula being fought in whispers , secret phone lines and smuggled radios . North Korean propagandist : Angry rhetoric product of Kim Jong Un 's weak standing as a new leader . S. Korean defectors work at the Daily NK , a North Korea -based website monitoring North Korea . Many at the publication fear that poor decisions can be made in times of fear .