Dear Lord Patten,

We, the undersigned students and residents of Oxford, are deeply concerned by the refusal of the BBC to extend its World Service to the Korean Peninsula, and in particular, North Korea. We believe that the extension of the service would be a viable and positive move by the BBC, and we call on you to support this cause in your capacity as Chairman of the BBC Trust and Chancellor of the University of Oxford.

There have been suggestions that financial restrictions prohibit the extension of the service. Recent cuts to funding of the World Service by the FCO are of course restrictive. Nevertheless, BBC Worldwide made a record £160 million profit in 2010/2011, which could be used to fund the extension. The extension is predicted to cost just £900,000 annually (a figure based on the cost of the successful BBC service to Burma, which is thought to be the 7th largest audience out of your 28 language services).

With this and the aims of the World Service in mind, we believe that the BBC should follow the lead of other international stations on this issue and extend the World Service to North Korea, despite this cost.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, recently said that "the deplorable human rights situation in DPRK... in one way or another affects almost the entire population and has no parallel anywhere else in the world.” Human Rights Watch describe the human rights abuses there as “severe and unrelenting.” The plight of the North Korean people must not be ignored.

International responses to this issue have typically focused on the level of high-politics but this has brought very little diplomatic progress and very little support to the North Korean people. North Korea has resisted negotiation with the international community, is continuing to develop its nuclear programme and is also surrounded by states which possess nuclear weapons.

However there is growing evidence of change gradually rising from within the country, being driven by the people, and this is reflected in the fact that the media environment is starting to open up. North Korean citizens are increasingly able to access foreign media and new information flows, and this provides a basis for hope for an improved future.

The BBC potentially has a key role to play in helping to empower this change in North Korean from within. Throughout its long and proud history the BBC World Service has broadcast to the most repressed people all over the world, providing a crucial source of objective news and information, giving hope to people who otherwise may have very little, and ultimately increasing the pressures for positive change inside such countries. That is inspiring, and should even be seen as a source of pride for the British people. It is high time the BBC provided this to the people of North Korea, and we urge you to support this cause.

As students and residents of Oxford,