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North Korea Opens .kp Sites On the Internet

Posted by timothy on from the best-place-for-them-really dept.

eldavojohn writes "What an auspicious day for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea! To commemorate the 65th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, North Korea will no longer depend on Chinese national internet service to reach the outside world — they have their own connection and are hosting sites like the state run media. The article mentions that about a thousand websites are coming online, including services like Skype and Twitter. From where I sit in the United States, I can't seem to get any .kp TLD sites to resolve, but the news is promising if in fact it will bring more information to the information-starved masses of North Korea."

14 of 175 comments (clear)

  1. Information-starved masses won't see the internet by GrumblyStuff · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I doubt they even have TVs or radios. I bet it's not even legal for them to either.

  2. I seriously doubt... by The+Fanta+Menace · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...that the average North Korean even has a computer to access the internet with.

    --
    -- Even if a god did exist, why the fsck should I worship it?
    1. Re:I seriously doubt... by St.Creed · · Score: 4, Insightful

      True... but this means we can send as much spam, 911-mails and virusbombs as we like to North Korea, without hurting innocent bystanders :)

      It's sort of like painting a big red target on any spot housing party officials, except only visible in the virtual world. And if they went with 3G or mobifi or something, it would be visible in the real world as well.

      --
      Therefore, by the (faulty) logic you're using, you're just a cow with a keyboard - osu-neko (2604)
  3. Re:Information-starved masses won't see the intern by sakdoctor · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I doubt you'll actually bother looking up info on TV/radio ownership in North Korea. I bet your random guessing and stabbing in the dark will get +5 Insightful.

    On a tangential ramble, Kim Jong-Il's Comedy Club was a very interesting documentry, and a rare glimse inside the weider-than-fiction world of North Korea.

  4. Cheerleading a transparent move on part of NK by OnePumpChump · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This is just going to be for more external propaganda. The very act of using this domain IS propaganda.

    Even if it does indicate more internal dissemination of information, more information isn't always good, if it's more of the same disinformation.

  5. What an unfortunate domain by poptones · · Score: 1, Insightful

    How long before all the child model sites - long ago kicked off the com, net and org byways and even apparently now finding it hard to exist on the info highways, end up on ".kp?" Littlemodel.amber.kp seems the perfect fit! North Korea, kiddie porn... oh, the irony.

  6. Re:Hooray! by hedwards · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Well, considering how many people in the US still think we're the best at absolutely everything, it's not that hard to believe. It's just with the better access to information they have to keep it somewhat within the realm of possibility.

  7. More information by Arancaytar · · Score: 4, Insightful

    it will bring more information to the information-starved masses of North Korea

    I tried to read that aloud with a straight face but failed miserably.

  8. Re:Yay! by ObsessiveMathsFreak · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The Democratic People's Republic of Korea isn't the best Korea; it's the only Korea, you Capitalist Roadster.

    Completely Embrace the Forward Thinking Progress of the People's Informational Movement!! Let The Empowered Voices Of The People Be Audible Across The Web!!* Down With The Internet Imperialists!

    *Offer void where in opposition to the rule of the Kim family and the Korean People's Army.

    --
    May the Maths Be with you!
  9. Re:And now for the real world by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Japan is not wel liked in the region. Something about being a nation riddled with war crimes and never making attonement for it might have something to do with it.

    Japan has both apologized and pay reparations numerous times. What more do you want them to do? Resurrect the dead?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_war_apology_statements_issued_by_Japan

  10. Re:Information-starved masses won't see the intern by ConaxConax · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Not according this to BBC documentary:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSrcLC6Zz54
    (Skip to ~1:40 to see them talking about a state radio in every kitchen that can't be turned off)

  11. From a faulty premise, any conclusion may follow by NatHoward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "...but the news is promising if in fact it will bring more information to the information-starved masses of North Korea".

    I don't see why the existence of ".kp" domains will bring more information to the folks in North Korea, any more than the words
    "Democratic People's Republic" in the country's official name would make it owned by the people, democratic, or a republic.

    Labels have power, sure, but not always the way one hopes.

  12. Not that simple. by Estanislao+Mart�nez · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Japan has both apologized and pay reparations numerous times. What more do you want them to do? Resurrect the dead?

    The story is much more complicated than that; you're being selective with the facts here. There are a few issues about Japan's attitudes towards its past that still bother the heck out of a lot of people:

    1. In a lot of people's minds, Japan hasn't apologized and paid repairs for everything that they ought to. One of the most famous cases is the WWII comfort women.
    2. The apologies you cite were made by the government of Japan, but there are significant segments of the Japanese public who are much less apologetic about their country's deeds in the first half of the 20th century. There's a lot of folk who would rather pretend Japan's misdeeds never happened, and worse, significant revisionist trends about them. In recent years, these have surfaced as controversial revisions of school history textbooks (yeah, kinda like recently in Texas).
    3. There's the controversial visits by Japanese politicians to Yasukuni Shrine, a Shinto shrine dedicated to fallen soldiers, which many feel it goes to lengths to glorify Japan's war criminals. The shrine is run privately, and the folks who run it are noticeably right-wing and revisionist about Japan's role in WWII.

    The trend is pretty clear: there is a significant conservative segment of the Japanese population whose attitudes just piss off the rest of the region, and there are many politicians who pander to them.

    --

    Are you adequate?

  13. Re:uk tv detector vans are real?? by lyml · · Score: 2, Insightful
    No, the TV-detector vans are a scare tactic. The noise being produced by your neighbors dwarf anything coming from your own home.

    However the principle by which they are working is very real. And in North Korea, there is (supposed to be) silence on all frequencies except the government approved ones, therefore any activity there whatsoever would be a lot easier to pickup.