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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."
"the Committee to Protect Journalists in New York"
I have heard its a dangerous place.....
Steve.
They have no electricity for lights, what makes you think they have electricity for internet? They'd have more luck using tubes.
First Po[Censored by Republic of North Korea]
It can giggle all it wants. The galaxy's not gettin any of our Bourbon.
That's one less third-world country I have to add to my server's firewall blocking rules!
:)
On another note, I don't think Internet access is high on their priorities. Building big bombs seems to be first on their agenda. If only they followed Iran's research strategy and started looking for plans on the internet, I bet their tests would go much better.
It looks like we're going to have to change all those In Soviet Russia... jokes to In North Korea...
init 11 - for when you need that edge.
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.
And the biggest issue here is the lack of internet access for citizens? That's really like no news. The internet hasn't been that long with us so how can you even think that it could be available in a such poor and controlled country. What you should be conserned about is their basic needs, food, healthcare, farming machinery etc. Of course internet, if it was available for them by some miracle, could help them break free from the crazy leader but still, that's like climbing to a tree backwards.
Millions of teenage boys with severely limited access to porn! It's like something out of a horror movie.
The Internet. Yeah. Gret thing. Usefull tool. Fun plaything.
Ultimate requirement as a definition of a states wellbeing? Hell no.
The arrogance of suggesting the internet supercedes items such as newspapers, phones (remember those things? No IP, just voice -> voltage -> voice), hell, even a decent postal service is laughable.
North Korea? Yeah, the place sucks. I haven't lived there, but I have visited, and even by what could be seen from the touristy approved areas it's not a good place. That's not the point of my post.
kartune85 : Incapable of reason, observation or learning. A kind of dim, drab, flightless parrot.
Give a man a fish and he can eat for a day. give a man the internet and he can setup a blog b*tching about the lack of fish and why girls don't like him.
Unless he is in NK in which case he gets thrown in jail after the first google search.
I read Slashdot all the time!
The Internet is all about sharing information. Yet, they chose to make it difficult for people to share and access it. Gosh, I hate this nytimes.com login form. Here is a direct link to the article (no login required).
Cutting off Internet access is sort of like imposing economic sanctions on yourself.
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.
All the koreans that play Starcraft on Battlenet still are from South Korea then?
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.
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
Do not be born in a country ruled by a paranoid dictator.
Best of luck.
How many problems do they have with terrorists? I can see Bush trying to implement such a "security" plan. I mean, someone has to think of the children!
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
Collectivism has caused more human misery than any other idea of the human mind. With every vote I cast and every dollar I give to politicians, I am guided by my desire to see it crushed and swept off the face of the earth. I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.
I'll just use my special getting high powers one more time...