North Korea Looking For Friends On Facebook
crimeandpunishment writes "North Korea has apparently decided this social networking thing is worth doing. Just days after launching Twitter and YouTube accounts, it appears to have added Facebook to the list. It probably won't get too many friends in South Korea, which has already blocked access to the North Korean Twitter account for containing 'illegal information' under its security laws...and says the Facebook page could suffer the same fate."
This is rather stupid, yes, lets just put our national identity on servers owned by governments hostile to us... Makes perfect sense right?
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
...is Best Korea.
Kim Jong-Il heard about Farmville and thought that sounded fun-.
So North Korea is publishing videos of their soldiers dancing on YouTube now. Seems to me like they are trying to compete with the Filipino prisoners who performed Thriller.
Slashdot's first reaction to VMware
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xh_9QhRzJEs
As much as I disagree with just about everything NK stands for, South Korea isn't winning an points in my book by blocking access.
note: before any westerners point out that blocking access will only spike curiosity and make those in SK more interested it the account, I would like to point out that Korean culture values authority far more than ours, and from my own experience living there, the children in south Korea had little to no interest in the North.
-I only code in BASIC.-
has most facebook friends! has most tweets!
south korea only has glum relatives and miserly business contacts. north korea has loving adoration and sworn allegiance bonded in blood and exaltation for the perpetual people's struggle and revolutionary apparatus! like it! like it! like it!
our great shining leader tweets 5,000 times a day with 3 million followers 24 hours a day no time for sleep! the people's struggle provides as sleep! each tweet a pearl of wisdom his grateful followers pore over for eternal wisdom in philosophy, economics, military strategy, acupuncture, home economics, and closet organization! retweet! retweet! retweet!
the imperial aggressor america and her boot linking sycophant japan will suffer under the boot of the full force of the people's glorious tweeting and facebook friending struggle!
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Yo, their Facebook page was already removed by the time Fark posted the link a few days ago.
Sure, how they feel bad about murdering Hans Blix.
Anybody suggested them page to Justin Bieber :D
of North Korea drinking it up with China and Cuba on a Friday night. Or better yet, people will start tagging goatse as NK.
...is a ridiculous concept
Facebook is telling me NK's page no longer exists... thought it's twitter and youtube is still around. Also, what do people make of NK identifying itself as male, and being interested in men?
But then they'd get access of all my friends and activities.
With all the kidnapping they've done in Japan, Korea and elsewhere, who knows what is the real purpose of that page.
I'd say collecting information on potential targets is high on the list.
/ puts on the multi-ply tinfoil hat.
It could produce drama.
When you un-friend Kim Jong-Il?
Current SKorean government is pretty totalitarian, so it's not unexpected that they will block access to anything from NKorea. As far as freedom to access to information is concerned, these "official" social networking activities from NKorea is nothing more than propaganda laden bs, so I really don't see any problem. It's not like they are trying to spread information regarding true reality of the NKorean citizens. If you wanted information on the reality of NKorea there are many documentaries produced by NGOs obtained through risking torture and hard labor. Look them up on youtube.
our great shining leader tweets 5,000 times a day
1 day / 5000 = 17.28 seconds
[from Google calulator]
Most human behaviour can be explained in terms of identity.
" It probably won't get too many friends in South Korea, which has already blocked access to the North Korean Twitter account for containing 'illegal information' under its security laws...and says the Facebook page could suffer the same fate."
It looks like North Korea will continue to be.... so ronery.
uriminzokkiri (uriminzok) on Twitter
YouTube - uriminzokkiri's Channel
Facebook | Uriminzokkiri
Looks like the original Facebook "people" account they made was removed (probably by North Korea when they realized it didn't make sense to have a "people" account), and replaced with a "page" thing. I noticed the original account's username was uriminzokkiri, and the new one is uriminzokkiriLike, so maybe North Korea changed accounts primarily because they want the Like button? Lots of guessing here.
Parent Anonymous Coward was making a reference to a popular meme which revolved around the 2chan and 4chan communities where angry [South] Koreans were waging electronic warfare (e.g. DDOS attacks, spamming, etc.) because of anti-korean jokes that were popular at the time.
Unfortunately, this had the opposite of the intended effect and caused a more explosive anti-korean reaction - including the use of hundreds of different custom created images where everyone wanted it to be known that "North Korea is Best Korea". It reached its peak during the anti Bieber explosion of 4chan antics where the board members successfully destroyed the Bieber world-tour campaign's Internet contest to see where he would [definitely] go on his world tour (as well as many other humiliatingly hilarious things also).
So your horrible attempt at humor was in actuality, massive fail. Plus that originally became popular from Full Metal Jacket.. a movie that took place in Vietnam.. not Korea.
Why would Koreans care about what you think of them? If they find something offensive they have every right to retaliate to the authors of that offensive material, provided that they take responsibility for the legal repercussions. You are saying as if if someone makes fun of you you should just let it go so it doesn't become a bigger problem. I'd say that's a cowardice nothing more.
My brother is married to a S. Korean National. He spent a number of years in SK, doing his duty. After retiring, his wife wanted them to stay in SK so he worked for GD until recently before switching jobs to UK. Now, what I find interesting is, that he spoke about the fact that late teens, prior to being drafted, wanted SK gov. to give in NK's demand and merge with NK. ANd they did not care what the demands from Jong-Il was. However, after they do their duty, he was telling me that the kids change their minds.
Now, I read your statement, and it sounds like you want to merge with NK, no matter the cost.
Am I reading that right? WHY would you want to merge with them? The only way that Jong will do that, is if HE is in control. Would YOU want yourself, or your family to live under the same conditions as North Korea does now?
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
"Uriminzok has "content that praises, promotes and glorifies" North Korea that was confirmed to be "illegal information" under South Korea's National Security Law, a commission statement said Thursday. The commission said it has no immediate plan to block the North's YouTube channel."
Are South Korea REALLY this paranoid? I know there seems almost insurmountable animosity between the two countries, but to actually ban free throught over it? Wow.
A google search for "North Korea" +Twitter gives:http://twitter.com/kcna_dprk which redirects to http://twitter.com/suspended. Apparently Great Leader will need to find another way to share his great wisdom.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Is the North Korean leader gay?
I'd love to see him dressed up in pink leather suits.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHL33RPvxdM
It's foolish to act without considering how others would react. What good is it to make that stand if it's actually going to negatively impact your cause?
South Korea just needs to get North Korea to add Kip Drordy as a friend. Problem solved.
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
Who wan't to join their facebook page...I can't just see some of the things will be sharing and commenting on.... We'll see pictures, of his imperial palace and you know the people starving in the country side....Kim posing with the people at the party when they threw som epople off their land and gave it to some regional offical ....Kim at party's where someone got shot for not paying homage to the leader....Kim posing with his good friends from Libya, Cuba....and of course he will be sharing with us how great everything there is and how awesome it is for evryone living their and how we should come and visit or better yet move therr...and of course I am sure he will put up some wacky youtube videos of him and his friends showing how they keep contorol of those that dont obey what he say's and those that don't believe " what we tell you is the truth" ...Oh I am sure it will be full of fun and all sorts of good time...
Is trading with the DPRK legal in the United States? If Facebook/Twitter/etc. knowingly continued to provide a service the DPRK regime would they be in violation of US law?
Patent litigation: A doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction... in which everyone seems willing to push the button
Being politically savvy is one thing and standing up for yourself is another. Eventually what really matters is whether you stood up for yourself not whether you were able to please everyone while you are at it. If you try to please everyone as you stand up for yourself, you'd better not do it at all to begin with. How do you stand up against senseless meme? How do you defend yourself from foreign invasion? By going on a war.
Also, what do people make of NK identifying itself as male, and being interested in men?
Kim is really, really ronery.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
I'm shocked, shocked. What happen to Chouchkhe movement? Weren't they supposed to use only pure communistic version of everything, including "interweb"?
I'm curious how they are able to block one single page. Does SK have a "great firewall", too?
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
First the damn Chicoms, now the damn SKoreans erecting great firewalls...
Oh I'm sorry, I forgot the SKoreans are on our side, please disregard.
* Pokes North Korea *
Jason-Palmer.com
Thanks, Encyclopedia Dramatica... I mean Anonymous Coward.
"The Facebook account, which describes itself as male, says it is interested in men and is looking for networking." It explains everything!
So rownry :)
Hello, I am the grandparent AC above. Massive fail? Oh well, you win some, you lose some.
I thought I should correct the record since you have made some incorrect assumptions in your post.
I took the line "Me love you long time!" directly from Full Metal Jacket. I don't visit 2chan or 4chan and I had no idea it's a popular meme with them, but I know it's widely used on the internet so people will recognise the phrase even if they don't know where it came from.
So, to deconstruct the joke:
"My name Kim" (i.e. Kim Jong-Il)
"You be friend, yes?" (referring to North Korea's desire to have friends on Facebook)
"Me love you long time!" (Vietnamese whore from FMJ).
In other words, Kim Jong-Il is whoring himself out online to get friends.
As for FMJ being set in Vietnam, not Korea, if I had wanted absolute cultural correspondence I could have used a quote from M*A*S*H where Hawkeye and B.J. are visiting Seoul and some lady of the night offers her services to the boys. It would have been an obscure quote though, and nowhere near as pithy.
When they say unification, they mean through peaceful political means. Of course, anything that even resembles unification is a long shot at best.
More likely, North Korea will collapse on its own and China will rush in from the north before the US can take it from the south.
Uhmm.....The page appears to have been taken down??
+1 - **Fantastic** documentary if you're interested in N. Korea.
It's a whole 'nother world and these guys were crazy enough to go all the way in. What makes them even crazier is that they're American.
If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
https://www.facebook.com/uriminzok
Apparently Lactose Free Milk can be called an interest!
Defending yourself against senseless memetic attacks (or just trolling) online generally is very hard. The best tactic I've found is a form of social judo, where you misdirect the attackers attention/distort the meme to something that isn't relevant to you, or makes them identify with you and anulling the dehumanizing effect of the internet - either be as unreal or real as possible. The most direct example would be a pre-prepared sockpuppet personality/mask with false weaknesses, but that obviously isn't applicable here. If you where a group of nationalists trying to stem a meme/raid like that, you'd basically either need to make the flow point at something(s) about your national character that isn't important, or make the attackers (honestly) identify and sympathise with aspects of your culture. Since we are talking about young males who like to think they are clever here, acts of war and political guile spiced up with true accounts of misery would probably do; if you can't hide your weaknesses you must bluntly admit to them. Think "getting respect from boys with daddy issues". "Attacking in force" is only doable if you can do something (harsh) to them IRL that would make them snap out of it .
All such machinations must be done indirectly, like it was all a big joke that you just made funnier or more clever, or it's a "forced meme." Also, truly horrible memes and information (like jokes about children and napalm) are repeated not because it's funny but because it's horrible, as a way to draw attention to them; the laughter is that of hysteria. This, and the fact that the hysteria often is completely juvenile and immature is probably the sole source for people mistaking behaviour like this for some sort of utter evil, when in reality it's just schoolyard shit-talking sped up 10x. Now, people like this are often mixed up with people who actually have a coherent point about the issues - but they are easily recognized, not being, as you so well describe it, senseless.
Emotions! In your brain!
This is great news for me: it means I will not have the lowest Friends count on Facebook :-)
Is that South Korea is not the US, and doesn't have the same free speech laws. Not everyone subscribes to the same idea of freedom as the US. Some places have freedoms the US doesn't, some lack freedoms the US has.
Free countries don't mean unlimited freedom, and not all free countries are of the same mind on what freedoms people should have.
I think it's a pity that South Korea decided to block access to these North Korean outlets. Even if North Korea doesn't give its citizens the same benefits, I would imagine it helps to know what people on the other side are saying and are being told. More knowledge and understanding is a Good Thing, particularly when it comes to avoiding and resolving conflicts.
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
the North Korean facebook thing may work along these lines? http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/tech-news/facebook-privacy-loophole-lets-you-view-the-chats-pending-friend-requests-of-your-friends_100359022.html
If Saddam was still around i think he would be North Korea's only friend.
Ok, well maybe him and Satan.
Happened in the US with our civil war. Took a long time for it to get back to "normality" and I guess I would say it never has really. Now I didn't realize that so much until I was an adult and moved to the south. Growing up in the north we had a certain cultural mindset, but after moving here it hit me how much differences remain, and how much the south is still discriminated against in general terms.
And the weirdest thing to me is, because this was mainly about race issues..the north is more racist, just they don't admit it or acknowledge it. The most racist place I have lived is in Boston, followed by Detroit, way more racist than around here where I live now, rural bubba land Georgia.
usa/japan experiences a significant decrease in power, or china experiences a significant decrease in power
countries like korea (well, north and south korea) suffer because they are being crushed between two powers. many other countries have seen enormous amounts of suffering due to being wedged between powerhouse empires. study the history of poland. the power struggle moved west of poland as the soviet union grew in power: result germany became the locus of struggle, and was divided. and then, when the soviet union collapsed, the center of power struggle moved east. result: germany was able to reunite, and now places like ukraine and georgia suffer for being the locus of power struggle between russia and the west: gerogia is being fractionated by russian military into tiny countries as it vies to define its sphere of influence outward
wherever empires meet, the buffer lands become a battlefield, and get fractionated by the aspirations for influence by either empires. its like beign crushed between giant boulders. in the case of korea, china will never let north korea collapse and become part of a seoul dominated single country, because now outside influences rub right up against their border. likewise, the usa and japan will never let south korea fall and be under the influence of a pyongyang dominated single country, for the same reasons, in reverse
the sad truth is that korea will be divided, exactly as long as china and usa/japan are at odds with each other as power centers in the world. if koreans want to be reunited as a single country, something i think they deserve, then koreans should pray or work hard to dramatically decrease the power of either china or usa/japan. then reunification will be natural and automatic
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
You can't shout "fire" in a crowded movie house, but you can shout "movie" in a crowded fire house.
That doesn't seem fair to me.
South Korea, which has already blocked access to the North Korean Twitter account for containing 'illegal information' under its security laws...and says the Facebook page could suffer the same fate."
Illegal information? What pray, may I ask is "illegal information"?
It's a rhetorical question Farley!!
S. Korea, meet the kettle. If you're going off about N. Korea censoring their media, you need stop pulling the same type of crap they do.
They just need to Dance Across The Floor!