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North Korea Introduces 'Secure' E-mail
An anonymous reader sent in a strange little story running over at ZD that discusses North Korea's new secure email system. There's a lot of strange bits in there about trained North Korean hackers, and the fact that North Korea's news agency is hosted in Japan.
Again, they're just proving that the best security method is just to not let anyone on the system at all.
How the system (likely) works:
The government assigns you a password.
You send email, people send you email.
You sleep well knowing that your email can only be read by the sender, recipient and.. that.. man.. with the rubber hose.
To me it sounds like Kim Jong Il is getting even more paranoid. He's wanting to control (and snoop) all email in within his borders for fear of net-savvy citizens daring to send subversive email. Pretty soon he'll probably start shooting people with glasses ("intellectuals") as Pol Pot did in Cambodia.
Hint to Kim Jong Il, try feeding your millions of starving children before promising them a corrupt email system few of them will ever live to see.
Trolling is a art,
Of course they can guarantee complete privacy: after the security forces pick up the sender and the recipient and disappear them forever, no one will ever know what was written in the email.
If this is North Korea's attempt to get off my black list, it's a failure.
:)
Is that where the Iraqi information minister ended up?
Anything is possible given time and money.
License2KimJongill: hello?
License2KimJongill: helloooo...
Bush43: SORRY CAN'T TALK RIGHT NOW
Bush43: GOT COLON POWELL ON THE PHONE
License2KimJongill: i'm pretty sure it's spelled colin
Bush43: WELL I'M PRETTY SURE YOUR NAME IS SPELLED KIM JUNGLE
License2KimJongill: shut up
Bush43: YOU SHUT UP
License2KimJongill: no you shut up
Bush43: MAKE ME
License2KimJongill: make me make you
Bush43: WHAT?
License2KimJongill: i have to go too, I have colin powell on the phone too. You're talking to "colon" powell so I bet you have the wrong guy
Bush43: SHUT UP
License2KimJongill: you shut up
Shamelessly stolen from the Kim Jong Il livejournal
http://www.kcna.co.jp
Pretty funny. A lot of stories like, "Ugandan ambassador hails Korean workers". Even some news in Spanish (I wonder if that's for Cuban benefit.)
Toronto-area transit rider? Rate your ride.
Great Leader Kim Yong Il is computer-savvy. Check out the Frontpage-For-Dummies official site of the DPRK.
I would be embarrassed to put pictures of my CAT on a website that lame.
"If you think you have things under control, you're not going fast enough." --Mario Andretti
Because they can't risk having such a honeypot inside the DMZ (heh, check out how the computer argot just got completely flipped back upon itself). You don't want those loyal Party North Koreans (who would run such a service) allowing even the chance of Southern/US propaganda entering the North.
Better to isolate it outside and communicate with it securely. Would any self-respecting BOFH run his tyrannical regime er network any other way (bad haircut optioal)?
Also note that a segement of Korean-Japanese (who are descendent from the bad ol' days when the Penninsula was a colony) still see the North Korean regime as the One True way (so getting help to run Il-Jong's isn't too hard). Interesting article on the subject can be found in this JE. It's about an American's vacation into the North. Fascinating.
What is music when you despise all sound?
From the article: "It remains illegal for any South Koreans to email their northern neighbors without government permission. "
So South Korea is fighting the oppression and censorship of the North with oppression and censorship?
Well, North Korea is not democratic at ALL, so South Korea (where you have elections, protests, etc) is the more democratic.
As far as being paranoid, I think the South is quite paranoid and with good reason. North Korean spies reguarly travel into the south, through a large network of tunnels under the DMZ. NK agents have kidnapped Japanese and South Koreans dozens of times in the past 40 years. South Korea is often infiltrated by North Korean spies who get into the country via small submarines.
From what I understand, cold war Berlin was nothing compared to what's been going on in Korea since the 60s.
So, while the population is starving due to castrophic economic policies, corrupt leadership and an idiotic foreign policy, they will no longer have to play games with the rest of the world, trading nuclear weapons for food.
I'd love to have a look at what pops up in their mail logs:
From: Dear Leader (Kim.Jong-Il@securemail.gov.kp)
To: president@whitehouse.gov (George)
CC: vice-president@whitehouse.gov (Dick)
Date: Dec. 2, 2003 18:50
Subject: North Korea Secure Email!!!11
------------
Dear Capitalist stooge George:
Invincible North Korean Peoples' Electronic Industry allow secure email discourse with running-dog American lackey. Welcome to glorious socialist revolution communication network! Great Korean Peoples' Hacker Team crush you Network like grape. All you base are belong to us! Hahahaha!
Love,
-Dear Leader
From: Dear Leader (Kim.Jong-Il@securemail.gov.kp)
To: orders@pizzahut.com
Date: Dec. 2, 2003 18:53
Subject: our order
------------
We take 50,000,000 super-size meat-lover special. Hold anchovy. Deliver President Palace, Pyongyang, Illustrious Democratic Peoples Republic North Korea.
Regard,
-Dear Leader
PS: Send Britney.
From: Dear Leader (Kim.Jong-Il@securemail.gov.kp)
To: tracy1827@hotmail.com (Peter Green Kabila
Date: Dec. 2, 2003 18:58
Subject: Re: YOUR STRICT CONFIDENCE REQUESTE
------------
Dear Mr. Kabila
Great Democratic People Republic of North Korea very interest in confidential transact. Please send more info.
Regard,
-Dear Leader
From: Dear Leader (Kim.Jong-Il@securemail.gov.kp)
To: president@whitehouse.gov
Date: Dec. 2, 2003 19:05
Subject: You Warheads
------------
Dear Ali,
Yuo nuklear weapon warhead ready. Freighter leave for Pakistan tomorrow. Please expediting payment expeditiously.
Cheers,
-Dear Leader
^D^C^C^C cancel
To: ali@alqaida.org
SHIT WRONG ADDRESSING
Cole's Law: Thinly sliced cabbage
PGP.Com products are notoriously overpriced, but I bet North Korea could negotiate a nice discount on a 22,000,000 seat license with A.T.M. Networks Inc, the South Korean sales agent...
One hitch -- I tried completing the "free download" form with "N.Korea" as the country code, and got this popup:
Ah well, GPG doesn't have these petty restrictions!
I do not deploy Linux. Ever.
Hopefully they've improved things since then.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Today the details of a new mail system claimed as "Absolutely Secure" have been posted on Leader Kim Jong II weblog available at the same server where the new mail system is being implemented.
An undisclosed person who likes himself to be called JK2 reported that "today i read my...err his weblog, and i got the details nobody knows about the new system"
Analysts said the new method is "Brillant" to bring email access to ppl while keeping comunications secure.
The system, concived by Kim Jong II himself consists in his own computer acting as a server, umplugged from any network or communications device. The gracefull leader himself will answer phonecalls from the population and transcribe the messages for them, absolutely free of charge.
The message is then keept in JK II "secure server" waiting for the recipient of the message to call using the toll free number and again, Kim Jong II himself will read the message for them.
The system is absolutely safe from net crackers and identity stealing since only Kim Jong II family have access to telephone services.
As stated by our misterious "JK2" source, many "free world" leaders have expressed interest in the new system including Chinese and Cuban leaders.
By yesterday, a very powerfull american software industry leader was analyzing in a emergency meeting held at company headquearters located in Redmond, the possibility to claim a patent on this great mail system while spokesman of a company who wanted to stay anonymous said that system is sure to use portions of intelectual property that belong to them, and they are analyzing charging Kim Jong II family a $600 license to use the system.