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North Korea Opens Official Website

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the designed-by-razorfish-i-think dept.

wumpus188 writes "This is what I believe is the first official North Korean internet site 'Naenara' ('My Country'). Free reg required (login 'slashdot', password 'password' for you lazy slackers :) I esp. enjoyed the 'Favorite Korean Movies' section."

19 of 382 comments (clear)

  1. Inside DPRK by Mmm+coffee · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Here's an interesting article about a man's experiences when he went into North Korea, in case anyone's wondering what's really going on in there.

    1. Re:Inside DPRK by friedo · · Score: 3, Interesting
      Yeah, they're pretty similar. Except for the fact that people in the sourth aren't starving by the millions, don't have a fanatical national cult leader, are free to leave and come back to the country whenever they want, have an independent press, a thriving economy and cordial relations with the civilized world.


      Yep. Very similar indeed.

    2. Re:Inside DPRK by dochood · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The South Korean media has a lot more freedom than it had under Chun Do Hwan.

      When Roh Tae Woo became president, he loosened up the restrictions on the media, and the very next day, they had one variety show where all of the voice impressionists they could find came out and did voice impressions of Roh and Chun! That was unheard of before.

      However, the government still does use the media to exercise its campaigns (keep our forests clean, don't honk obnoxiously at other drivers, let your kids get SOME sleep and not make them study all the time, etc). They often use drama and comedy shows to make their points.

      Right after we pressured them into buying our meat (back in the 80's when the trade deficit was really bad), a week later on a little kids' show, the adult characters were explaining to the kid characters on the show that the meat tasted so bad because it came from America, and it was all spoiled and full of hormones!

      The media is South Korea is still heavily censored and used by the government to make their points.

  2. Their Server Runs SUSE! by rally_redhat · · Score: 3, Interesting

    As mentioned before, clicking on their "One Korea" link gets you to a "page unavailable" message:

    Object not found!

    The requested URL was not found on this server. The link on the referring page seems to be wrong or outdated. Please inform the author of that page about the error.

    If you think this is a server error, please contact the webmaster.
    Error 404
    www.kcckp.net
    Sat Jul 17 18:31:28 2004
    Apache/2.0.48 (Linux/SuSE)

    Look at the last line.

    I was amazed initially - I thought "Linux really is everywhere" - until I realised that Microsoft probably doesn't have any branches in North Korea! That's one country where there won't be too many IIS servers!

  3. Bestsellers in the DPRK... by Ariane+6 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Exerpted from the top-selling title:

    DISTORTION OF US PROVOCATION OF KOREAN WAR

    PREFACE

    Since June 25, 2000, the 50th year since their unleashing the Korean War, the United States has been bent on grossly distorting the history of the war and will continue to do so until 2003, with a sinister aim to shift the blame for their war, the blame for their aggression, onto the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

    Holy #&$@ing shit, what a bunch of nutballs!

    Oh - and what's going to happen in 2003? This yankee imperialist running dog of capitalism wants to know!

  4. And others.... by jrumney · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There are others that have been around a while, this one seems to be set up by an expat group, but this one claims to be the official site of the DPRK government. Check the Welcome from Kim Jong-Il.

  5. check out the registration pull-down menus by js7a · · Score: 4, Interesting
    On the registration page, check out these two pull-down menus:

    Password hint question:

    The name of your best friend is ...
    The scenary I love most is ...
    My favorite movie star is ...
    How would Korea change after reunification?
    What will you do when Korea is reunified?
    My favorite movie is ...

    Nationality / citizenship:

    1. Korean
    2. Chinese
    3. German
    4. Russian
    5. Australian
    6. Bahrain
    7. Bangladesh
    8. Chinese [duplicate]
    9. Indian
    10. Indonesian
    11.Iranian
    12. Iraqi
    13. Israeli
    14. Japanese
    15. Jordan
    16. Kuwaiti
    17. Lebanese
    18. New Zealand
    ...
    52. Canadian
    53. Mexican
    54. American ["American"?]
    55. Argentinian
    ...
    97. Netherlander
    98. Portuguese
    99. Spanish
    100. English

    Apparently our sensitive alphabetical sorting technology has been sucessfully prevented from reaching the DPRK.

    1. Re:check out the registration pull-down menus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      the sorting isn t that strange.
      try the korean names. i bet it ll be nicely sorted.
      america -> miguk
      english -> yonguk

      the only one i find strange is germany (dogil).

  6. No illicit drugs for sale? by Quirk · · Score: 2, Interesting
    from the CIA factbook: "...for years from the 1970's into the 1990's, citizens of the Democratic People's Republic of (North) Korea (DPRK), many of them diplomatic employees of the government, were apprehended abroad while trafficking in narcotics. In recent years, police investigations in Taiwan and Japan have linked North Korea to large illicit shipments of heroin and methamphetamine, with the attempt by the North Korean merchant ship Pong Su to deliver 125 kg of heroin to Australia in April 2003 the most recent example of Pyongyang's involvement in the drug trade. All indications point to North Korea emerging as an important regional source of illicit drugs targeting markets in Japan, Taiwan, the Russian Far East, and China."

    --
    "Academicians are more likely to share each other's toothbrush than each other's nomenclature."
    Cohen
  7. Has anyone else registered? by Motherfucking+Shit · · Score: 3, Interesting
    There's an English version of the registration page. According to that page,
    "When you gain "Naenara" user ID, your webmail address is automatically allocated. eg: your "Naenara" ID@kcckp.net."
    root, postmaster, and kimjongil were already taken. But as soon as I figure out how to use the webmail interface, I'm abuse@kcckp.net .. Leave it to Korea to ignore the abuse account :)
    --
    "BSD: Free as in speech. Linux: Free as in beer. Windows 10: Free as in herpes." --Man On Pink Corner in #52607549.
    1. Re:Has anyone else registered? by DuctTape4Windows · · Score: 1, Interesting

      actually, i thought that the NSA was only allowed to monitor internet traffic coming in/going out of the country?

  8. Is it true, the two Koreas reunified? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    The site mentions the recent "historic reunification" of the two Koreas ... did this actually happen, or is it just their modified version of history?

    If it did really happen and I missed it, I need to get out more ... :-)

    1. Re:Is it true, the two Koreas reunified? by The+OPTiCIAN · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I can't see the South Koreans loving the prospect of seeing their economy crumple to dust when they have to start providing for twenty two million new citizens with no first-world-economy skills.

      > It would solve most of the problems currently
      > posed by North Korea, including the nuclear one.

      There are plenty of problems with the notion of a unification of the two Koreas. This is why the South and the US are prepared to throw money at them to keep doing what they're doing and let the South continue on in stability, so longer as the north don't threaten that region's stability with a nuclear threat.

      --


      Believe with me, my saplings.
  9. Constitution by Kenny.EXE+-P666- · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Am I the only one who finds it strange that the pages with the N. Korean constutition repeatedly praise a single individual? As screwed up as the United States is right now, (I liked the days with a Democratic president and a Republican Congress, government was so busy bitching at each other they left me and the American people alone. :) At least my constution begins with "We the People...." not "The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is the socialist motherland of Juche which has applied the idea and leadership of the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung." This makes me happy I am in a first world industrialized nation.

  10. Interesting password hints by Desprez · · Score: 3, Interesting
    The password hint questions were an interesting change from the normal: mother's maiden name, pet's name, etc that we are so used to seeing from western/european registrations

    Here are the DPRK's registration password hint questions:
    The name of your best friend is...
    The scenery I love most is...
    My favorite movie star is...
    How would Korea change after reunification?
    What will you do when Korea is reunified?
    My favorite movie...

    (Emphasis mine)

    I'll say, they just can't resist packing in the propaganda and agenda into every square inch.

  11. FYI: Worldwide Press Freedom Index... by plj · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...can be found here. Note: published at October 2002!

    Some countries of interest:

    1. Finland
    ...
    15. Switzerland & Costa Rica
    17. United States
    18. Hong Kong
    ...
    35. Taiwan
    ...
    38. Bulgaria
    39. South Korea
    40. Italy (the worst country of EU-15; hurrah, Berlusconi!)
    41. Czech Republic (back then not yet an EU member state)
    ...
    92. Israel (no Arab country performed in top 50, either)
    ...
    104. Afghanistan (year after collapse of the Taliban regime)
    ...
    130. Iraq (still Saddam's regime)
    ...
    138. People's Republic of China
    139. North Korea (the last one)

    --
    “Wait for Hurd if you want something real” –Linus
  12. North-Korea's secret export-hit: cartoons by rainer_d · · Score: 2, Interesting
    This article (unfortunately in German) explains the details behind a strange and secret business North-Korea has been running for some time:
    It's producing animated cartoons of more or less famous characters. The work has been outsourced from Western companies, because NorthKoreans work cheaper than anybody else on this planet and produce good quality (which you probably can't always say for Chinese correction-facility-inmates, which are reportedly even cheaper).

    Next time you watch some Sunday-morning-cartoon, think a moment of those poor people in NK.

    Rainer

    --
    Windows 2000 - from the guys who brought us edlin
  13. Re:Inside DPRK: behind the scenes. by daviddennis · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Have you ever visited a Communist country?

    I have, Cuba in December 2002. It was a real eye-opener to see armed police on every street corner and people scared to talk to you when you took them out to a restaurant, because they knew the waiters are spies. And I'm not kidding.

    To see fear in the eyes of people, because they would be punished with three years in Re-Education Camp if they told you the truth ... that eliminates the "our society is screwed" attitude real fast.

    I know our society is imperfect. So are people, and so are all societies. But to say that people like living under tyranny because they don't have the power to overthrow it is just plain wrong.

    Incidentally, Castro wants Cubans to hate us, because it creates solidarity for his policies within Cuba. But after decades of deprivation compared to how life was pre-Castro, this is wearing more than a little thin. In my experience, it isn't working now. Every Cuban I encountered - and I encountered many - loves America.

    It seems like you have to live in a tyranny - or at least know what one's like - to appreciate what we have here.

    D

  14. Re:Well well! by Halfbaked+Plan · · Score: 2, Interesting
    I am just enjoying a fresh new version of the musty old Stalinist boilerplate that made old-school communist publications just a joy to mock.

    Example: the photo captioned:

    Supreme Commander Kim Jong Il visits the Mangyongdae Revolutionary School on a snowy New Year's Day.
    This school is a grand palace of learning of the bereaved children of the revolutionary martyrs which President Kim Il Sung established in person.


    That sort of stuff hasn't made it west since the Enver Hoxa folks in Albania stopped shipping their stuff over for 'New Left' consumtion.
    --
    resigned