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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.
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.
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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.
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.
How much internet and cellphones did the US have in the 1940s ?
Heck. The people who designed and built the first bomb didn't even have pocket calculators.
It's clear that they got the bomb tech from elsewhere.
Hm, well yeah. The knowledge that you can build these things has been around for over hald a century. The basic principles can now be found in pretty much any physics textbook, as opposed to _nowhere_ in the 1940s. Unemployed bomb-builders could be found in Russia.
It's nowhere near as hard to build a bomb now than it was 60-something years ago.
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
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.