To everyone else, this garbage looks like—well, garbage. But to one South Korean scholar, it’s treasure.

Professor Kang Dong Wan collects North Korea’s trash. He finds it washed up on island beaches. It’s no easy job. Sometimes he doesn’t find anything. Sometimes he gets stranded because of bad weather. People tell him he’s wasting his time.

But Professor Kang uses this garbage to study North Korea.

North Korea shuts itself off from visitors. Its citizens live under a dictatorship. One leader makes all the rules. Some people have escaped the country. They tell stories of harsh laws and food shortages. They also tell stories of Christian persecution.

North Korea’s government doesn’t tell the same story. It wants the world to think everything is fine.

Professor Kang used to visit China to study North Korea. He could take pictures of nearby North Korean villages. He could talk to North Koreans who escaped across the border.

But since the coronavirus pandemic, China allows few foreign visitors. Professor Kang had to find a new way to study North Korea.

That’s when he started collecting garbage: snack bags, juice pouches, candy wrappers, and drink bottles. Sometimes after North Koreans drop this garbage into the sea, it washes up in South Korea. Professor Kang doesn’t even need to leave his home country.

He learns details of North Korean life. Snack packages show that North Korea imitates treats from other countries. Flavor packets tell him that many North Koreans might not have access to meat and fish. Ingredient lists on juice pouches reveal that North Koreans use tree leaves instead of sugar. Professor Kang thinks that’s because North Korea can’t afford sugar or equipment to process it, like wealthier countries can.

North Korea tells the world its people are happy and free. But like tree-leaf sweetener in imitation snacks, the freedom isn’t real.

For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil. — Ecclesiastes 12:14