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The Internet Black Hole That Is North Korea
Nrbelex writes "While other restrictive regimes have sought to find ways to limit the Internet — through filters and blocks and threats — North Korea has chosen to stay wholly off the grid. The New York Times discusses the total lack of 'net access facing the North Korean state, and what it means in the long term." From the article: "The South was illuminated from coast to coast, suggesting that not just lights, but that other, arguably more bedrock utility of the modern age -- information -- was pulsating through the population. The North was black. This is an impoverished country where televisions and radios are hard-wired to receive only government-controlled frequencies. Cellphones were banned outright in 2004. In May, the Committee to Protect Journalists in New York ranked North Korea No. 1 -- over also-rans like Burma, Syria and Uzbekistan -- on its list of the '10 Most Censored Countries.' That would seem to leave the question of Internet access in North Korea moot."
Man, sucks to be them. My guess is the lack of electricity in the country is some sort of ploy to confuse all of our advanced weapons and smart bomb technology. ;-)
It is also worth checking out Afghanistan and Mongolia at night. From looking at their night time maps, I admit that I am just AMAZED at how awesome their energy conservation programs are. California could learn a lot from Afghanistan for sure. And Mongolia better not give the US any lip.
And if you are looking at the map, check out how well lit Iran is. I don't know about you, but with the amount of bright lights all over that country, I'm guessing the US wouldn't hit that. I think we like our bitches more backwards and with a southern accent. :-)
Seriously. Was something like 60 euro per hour at the Yanggakdo Hotel in Pyongyang via satellite connection. I doubt it was censored or even monitored, though I'd be a fool to not at least concede the possibility.
It's like China, but to an extreem, they maintain power by keeping the people the govern unimformed of what the rest of the world is doing, the last thing they want is for the public to learn. Especially learn how the world sees them. All tyranical goverments fall, and all good goverments go though coruption and greed(take a look at us here in the U.S.A. The only goverments that survive are those where the people are in control. Like I say to many people real life, if you didn't vote... Shut up!!
"Too bad that bureaucrats' hunger for power is never matched by greater quantities of wisdom or intelligence!!--Could it
While I agree that censorship is BAD, why is this newsworthy now?
Why the highlight in North Korea? Is Korea going to be the next Irak?
I took a trip to the DPRK about a year ago, and had a chance to see a "computer lab" in one of the "showcase" high schools.
- 1070525/
They are for the most part still using Win95, etc. As mentioned in the article, they have their own national intranet, but not Internet access. Sanctions probably make it difficult to get newer things.
Interestingly, for political reasons, they do not use the (South) Korean version of Windows, but rather they are working on their indigenous solution for entering text and displaying Korean script (hangul/chosongul).
Some pictures are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ryu2/49295211/in/set
There's 10 types of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
It is not true that North Korea is an internet black hole. There are a number of sites, such as http://www.mybaduk.com/ aka Koryo Baduk, aka International Friendship Baduk Game Site, DPRK (North Korea) Lotto Venture which are at least intermittantly reachable.
When there is connectivity, traceroute suggests a very long, slow trip, via China.
to use a dark night-time satellite image as proof to bolster that assumption, is pretty ignorant and Amer-Euro-centric[TM].
Hello, McFly?
It ain't a western presumption, its a modern-world-centric presumption. Even most 3rd world countries put out a lot of light in their cities and all the 1st and 2nd world countries are bright and shiny light bulbs.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
They have no Internet, cellphones, hardly any lights at night. All those "modern" conveniences are important to science and engineering, especially science and engineering culture. Yet N Korea has apparently have nuclear bombs, one of the heights of tech achievement for any society.
Of course Koreans are as natively smart as any people. Maybe smarter: they have to outwit their totalitarian regime to survive. And they invented moveable type at least a half-century before Europe's vaunted Gutenberg. In fact, pigs appear to have begun domestication in the Korean peninsula before anywhere else (except somehow simultaneously directly across the Pacific, in Peru, but that's another story...). N Koreans are smart, but they're extremely poor and ill equipped. Yet they got the bomb.
It's clear that they got the bomb tech from elsewhere. From our "allies", Pakistan. Which sent nuke tech to at least N Korea, Libya and Iran, probably during Reagan/Bush, while the US let them all get away with it. OK, we straightened out Libya (for now - Kadaffy is like a Bugs Bunny villain), but the rest are some of our most dangerous enemies. And though they're cutting off the Internet (except maybe Pakistan) as fast as they can, they're developing these extreme scientific "achievements". Cutting into the only superiority the US has, apart from massive production (dependent on their even more massive oil exports, except from N Korea, which exports nothing but fear).
Maybe we're not so smart, despite our Internet and 24h electric lights.
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make install -not war
North korea claims they have a high speed nationwide network, but that they can not connect it to the internet since USA dominates it.
The official webpage of north korea is: www.voiceofkorea.org
You can contact a representitive here: DPRK@voiceofkorea.org
I actually offered them to install a wifi link for free from Seoul to Pyongyang. Here is the response:
===========
Hi
I deeply appreciate your advices.
However, we can not use the facility of South Korea at this time because the two governments did not yet agree for this project.
You are absolutely right that good communication can often overcome suspicion and disagreement.
I will forward your message to the concerned ministry of DPRK government, and I will inform you when I get response.
I will also tell you if any DORK company is interested in developing such project with you.
Thank you.
Sincerely yours
VOICE OF KOREA
don't cut it off www.mgmbill.org
The biggest problem is far and away America. Spammers from there (e360, anyone?) - it's just often /first/ world countries like Korea and Hong Kong, etc, that have more computers compromised (all that fiber to the kerb, yum) that end up (unwittingly) doing the bidding of Americans.
their priority seems to be to create a distraction from their troubles. They know they no-one dares invade, for fear of wrecking complex international relationships (such as with China). This is an exercise to distract their population from the fact that their country is circling the drain.
If the US leaves the region, which was on the cards, then they lose the 'huge army on our doorstep' argument for maintaining their unrealistic regime. Now the US dare not leave, which is a victory for North Korea.
That's more or less it, so far as I can tell. Their test was a flop, and they can't feed their population, let alone afford a military campaign. As it is most of the money they might use on that comes from us.
This is all bound to fail anyway, chances are North Korea won't survive the decade. As it is their hold on ther population is slipping.
I suspect it is going to become quite an old-fashioned modern-world-centric presumption quite quickly. Several parts of the UK are planning to turn off all street lighting outside of town centres from midnight to 5am to save on electricity, carbon emissions and to reduce light pollution.
Nah, you don't get thrown in jail. You get sent to military prison where they kill the lucky ones and experiment on the unlucky and their families five generations removed.
A chosen few get sent to watch nuclear bomb tests first-hand. What? You thought that bomb was put into a safe and empty tunnel? No. It was lined with prisoners at various depths. What better way to observe the blast effects on people.
In North Korea's case though, it's not like the citizens have any money that they'd spend on anything via the Internet though.
Personally, I have always thought North Korea would be the one to jump on and promote internet piracy and illegal pornography much like they sell heroin and conterfeit super dollars.
But I don't think they have caught on to that yet... But I wouldn't be suprised if they did.
It would be something that the RIAA nor the US government could get at either.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
there's no way a war against north korea would be anything but short and horrific. However any country doing it would get a lot of flack, since north korea is essentially incapable of defending itself, in that it has no ability for a sustained war.
It would be analagous to shooting a schoolyard bully. It can be done, but not without getting into a huge amount of trouble.
NK knows this, or their leaders do. They know that the US don't dare attack, but are obligated to defend South Korea against an attack that will likely never come. So long as the US is there, the NK regime is safe from collapse, or so they think.
In the modern age a war against them would be over fairly soon, and invaders, while winning fast, would then have a massive humanitarian disaster on their hands. China is particulerly worried about this aspect.