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."

Comments

New York....

[Steve Cox]

"the Committee to Protect Journalists in New York"

I have heard its a dangerous place.....

Steve.

Chosen?

[Anonymous Coward]

They have no electricity for lights, what makes you think they have electricity for internet? They'd have more luck using tubes.

HA

[rolandbm]

First Po[Censored by Republic of North Korea]

No North Korean spam!

[tehSpork]

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. :)

Re:No North Korean spam!

[keeboo]

That's one less third-world country I have to add to my server's firewall blocking rules!

Funny thing you mentioned...
On the other hand, most (90% i guess) of my spam advertise services/products which the contact is someone in the U.S. (a so-called 1st-world country), despiste the fact I do not live there.
Considering this, I would say the root of the problem is not really those poor countries.

Soviet Russia Joke

[Silver Sloth]

It looks like we're going to have to change all those In Soviet Russia... jokes to In North Korea...

Re:Soviet Russia Joke

[ricree]

They'd get old really fast, since pretty much all of the go something like "In North Korea, you join the army and hopefully manage to avoid starving to death."

Re:Soviet Russia Joke

[AlecC]

According to this weeks Economist, even the army sometimes starves. Families fight to help therir sons avoid concsription into army units notorious for malnutrition.

How 'bout just a black hole

[supertux]

It's not just the internet. Have you ever looked at North Korea using Google maps nighttime? North Korea is the black patch to the left of Japan. It is more amusing if you switch to "Dusk Map" as you can clearly see that the lack of lights match exactly with the boarders of South Korea and China.

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. :-)

Re:How 'bout just a black hole

[vertinox]

Only children, simpletons, and power-hungry ideologues believe in socialism any more

Then why does Norway have the highest standard of living in the world?

Seriously, get your damn terminology straight.

Socialism does not equal communism!

Even then it isn't black and white. North Korea is Stalinist Communist (as opposed to Marxist Communist or post-Stalinist Kruscheve Communist with each its own type of dogma)

Heck... Hitler's government was National Socialist and that is as far as you can get from communist ideology.

I used the internet in North Korea

[mumblestheclown]

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.

Re:I used the internet in North Korea

[Ryu2]

Interesting -- when were you there? I was in Pyongyang October 2005, but stayed at the other big foreigner hotel, the Koryo. They had email access then but not Internet (web, etc) access.

The DPRK contacts that I made gave me their organization's email address; when I asked, they said they had organization email-boxes, and they were "working on" getting individual email addresses.

So yes, I can corrobrate that the DPRK is not completely isolated from the net. However, the Yanggakdo hotel is only for foreigners (and maybe top government officials who are above the law anyway), so the "Internet access" doesn't really count, as far as North Koreans themselves being able to get on the Net.

The biggest issue

[tka]

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.

Re:The biggest issue

[Rob Kaper]

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.

I agree with the controlled bit, but poverty is not a very strong argument. Internet is easily available in most of Africa. DSL isn't widespread nor is PC ownership, but GPRS connections are quite common and the pre-paid cell phone market is booming with subscriber numbers doubling every year.

And keep in mind that investments in technology need not necessarily compete with investments in farming or healthcare.

Think of the children!

[Anonymous Coward]

Millions of teenage boys with severely limited access to porn! It's like something out of a horror movie.

Techie Arrogance Shines Forth Once more.

[VendettaMF]

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.

Give a man the internet....

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

This is another evil American Imperalist lie!

[Kim Jong Il]

I read Slashdot all the time!

sanctions on yourself?

[EraserMouseMan]

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.

Computing in North Korea

[Ryu2]

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.

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- 1070525/

Re:Computing in North Korea

[Robaato]

Interesting...

Are the North Koreans aware that there actually IS a Korean version of Windows? This travelogue, from back when the World Cup was co-hosted by Japan and South Korea, suggests that they don't. I can easily imagine the North Korean government keeping mum on the existance of a South Korean division of Microsoft.

Two quotes:

Oddly enough the students were using the English version of Windows 98 rather than the Korean one. When I asked Mr. Huk why he looked at me like I was an idiot and said because there wasn't a Korean version. A 'fact' that must come as a huge surprise to Microsoft Korea!

When asked if he felt like they were missing out on all the great information available on the Net Mr. Huk just brushed us off with, "we already know the truth from our government. Why would we want to learn what others say?" Which, in a nutshell, seemed a pretty good explanation of North Korean thought as a whole.