The official North Korean broadcaster on Wednesday claimed the majority of South Koreans "live in extremely wretched conditions." North Korean Central Television aired a 10-minute patchwork of edited South Korean TV clips about the difficult living conditions of the underprivileged in South Korea to illustrate the claim.

The program titled "South Korea in Crisis, Wretched Livelihood of the People," had been edited together from clips of MBC, KBS, SBS and YTN about homeless people, unemployment, redevelopment, a disastrous clash between protesters and police in Yongsan on Jan. 20, 2009, abandoned elderly people, and serial killings.

"Today, the South Korean economy is miserably collapsing under heavy weight of the worldwide oil crisis and the financial crisis initiated in the U.S.," the voiceover said. "The absolute majority of the South Korean people, who are standing on the edge of a precipice due to a serious economic crisis, live in extremely wretched conditions."

It was unprecedented for North Korea to air a 10-minute program about the South. As if to prove that the scenes were real, the channel showed the names of the South Korean broadcasters and their program titles.

A South Korean government official said, "It seems the North is attempting to prevent North Koreans who are suffering heavy economic difficulties such as food shortage from aspiring to live in South Korea and appease their discontent with the regime by making them believe tha t South Korea is a bad place to live."

Discontent is reportedly rising in North Korea after people were press-ganged into a "150-day struggle" of farm work. Some 16,000 North Korean refugees lived in South Korea as of June this year, and they are apparently keeping in touch with relatives in the North through brokers in China and other countries.