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How Technology Gets the News Out of North Korea
itwbennett writes "Kim Dong-cheol is a North Korean with 'a double life,' writes the IDG News Service's Martyn Williams in a story on ITworld. 'In addition to his job as a driver for a company, Kim also works as a clandestine reporter for AsiaPress, a Japanese news agency that's taken advantage of the digital electronics revolution to get reports from inside North Korea,' says Williams. 'When we started training journalists in 2003 or 2004, getting cameras into North Korea was a real problem,' said Jiro Ishimaru, chief editor of the news agency, at a Tokyo news conference on Monday. 'Nowadays, within North Korea you are able to have your pick of Sony, Panasonic or Samsung cameras.' The images they're capturing are 'often startling,' and it 'documents a side of the country the government doesn't want the world to see,' says Williams."
Noticed they mentioned Samsung... I wonder why N. Korea is allowing S. Korean brands to be sold. Any ideas?
It's always confirmation bias!
>>"Kim Dong-cheol is a North Korean with 'a double life' Not anymore.
Really do we need to know how this is done? I am hoping this is a red heiring and that they are using other methods to get the SD cards out.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
This is not how these things work, news to me, thank you.
From TFA, emphasis mine:
It was shot on a cheap camera by a man who goes by the pseudonym Kim Dong-cheol, a North Korean with a double life. In addition to his job as a driver for a company, Kim also works as a clandestine reporter for AsiaPress, a Japanese news agency that's taken advantage of the digital electronics revolution to get reports from inside North Korea.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
The interesting part is that they use Chinese cellphone networks, which leak into North Korea at the border, to get the videos out. (The Burmese opposition also does that, connecting to Bengladeshi networks.)
I wonder why China lets that happen, as it would be trivial for them to ban any data coverage in this area and/or report any suspicious activity to the North Korean authorities. Maybe it's a way for them to put some pressure on their North Korean "ally", which has become somewhat of an embarrasment to them lately.
If cell phone coverage goes down, they could still use carrier pigeons to send Flash drives to China or South Korea...
Hello! I'm a disaster waiting to happen!
while in the army and stationed in south korea i came literally within 20 feet of the demarkation line and toured the DMZ. it was cool in a museum sort of way. but even though i'm originally from the USSR and remember life under communism, i don't really care about life in north korea.
sure it sucks for people there, but i'm not living there. except for a few crazy people who try to sneak in, most people want to get out. i can't do anything about the people living there so it's not a priority for me
As long as properly used, technology is always supported every human activity .So be positive on the technology, and technology will have a positive impact also on all of us.
Starving to death is so under-rated.
And everything you list as being a cause of the problems of North Korea, other than geographic location are due to the dictatorship.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
The dictatorship is bad, but the economic situation is caused by bad location in the globe, lack of innovation to improve farming/manufacturing, corruption, and bad trading.
“Bad location” that it shares with South Korea and Japan, and lack of innovation, corruption, and bad trading that are mainly due to the dictatorship and its repressive policies. But hey, if it sounds so good to you, why don’t you go live there?
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
North Korea is very opaque, even for China and Russia. China can only go so far in assessing the state of North Korea through its official channels (even if they attach intel officers to their diplomatic mission). It's not like Chinese agents can mingle with the rest of society in North Korea like they could, if posing as "immigrant workers" or "tourists" in South Korea or Japan. This helps them get additional, cheap information.
A place with no advertisements, no light pollution, and few cars sounds good to me.
The dictatorship is bad, but the economic situation is caused by bad location in the globe, lack of innovation to improve farming/manufacturing, corruption, and bad trading.
Are you fucking serious?
Let me give you just one example. A doctor goes to NK to treat cataracts using a simple procedure. He cures the blindness of a hundred people in one sitting. When they take the bandages off, the first thing they do when they can see is rush past the doctor to worship the pictures of the Dear Leader and the Great General and thank them for the gift of sight. Of course, that's what they have to do in the presence of the authorities or any cameras whose contents are likely to be viewed by the authorities.
NK is a tin pot hereditary dictatorship, it is a necrocracy with a dead man as its head of state. It is a surreal world that shows what happens when absolute power gets into the hands of an unstable lunatic. Its people are the most oppressed in the modern world.
"Bad location in the globe" my trunks. It's within easy trading distance of Japan on one side and China on the other.
Jesus wept!
Drill baby drill - on Mars
A place with no advertisements, no light pollution, and few cars sounds good to me.
There are plenty of free caves in the mountains.
The dictatorship is bad, but the economic situation is caused by bad location in the globe
As opposed to South Korea? And other surrounding states?
lack of innovation to improve farming/manufacturing, corruption, and bad trading.
Gee, this couldn't possibly have to do anything with the dictatorship of some inane guy...
Except there's a SOUTH Korea with a rather NICE economic situation, plenty of innovation, a bit cleaner government, and booming trade. It's not all that far.
Bad location in the globe? Seriously? That's the lamest excuse I have ever heard in my life.
They are surrounded by China, South Korea, and Japan. There's no economic activity going on in "location in the globe" whatsoever, I'm sure.
That's what I learned from this article.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
As entertaining as it was to read this snapshot of reality as it appears from the little corner you seem to have painted yourself into, I can’t help but wonder how on earth any previously-sane person could really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like.
Really... what exactly does it take to bring someone to that?
My first response was that that was awful and reflected very badly on the country.
Then I remembered meeting a dirty ragged skin and bones dude I met the other day on the street in my own western democracy. He survived off of collecting bottles from rich peoples garbage. I wonder how that would go down as a single picture and story with no broader context?
While I still am almost certain North Korea is much much worse on average, it is an interesting thought. A single case a statistic does not make.
A place with no advertisements, no light pollution, and few cars sounds good to me.
I think what the AC is really looking for is Sark.
There's one bright spot when it comes to the DMZ. It's home to a lot of species that wouldn't thrive anywhere else.
Before the Iraq war, I was in South Korea. As a soldier, I obviously couldn't actually enter NK, but I have been on the DMZ. The first thing I noticed about NK is that there are no trees. South Korea has forests, but NK appears to be clear cut as far as the eye can see. The NK Guards have soviet-style costumes. If NK weren't so dangerous, the DMZ could pass for a set in a Steven Spielberg film. But the three things NK seems to have in abundance (at least as seen from the DMZ) are oversized flags, martialistic music and Guard Towers. From the DMZ, North Korea looks like the biggest prison in the world. I am glad someone is sneaking cameras into the country and recruiting journalists, because the world seems to be willfully ignorant about how bad the situation is in NK. Hopefully NK will eventually peacefully implode, like East Germany, but the Kim family and his Cronies are enriching themselves at the expense of the Korean People, so they probably won't go without a fight. Maybe we'll get lucky and the North Koreans will deal with the Kim family the same way the Romanians took care of the Ceauescu family.
http://www.vbs.tv/watch/the-vice-guide-to-travel/vice-guide-to-north-korea-1-of-3
When I saw this, it changed my perception (in a bad way) of just how messed up north korea is.
I would take 5 minute commercial interruptions trying to sell me Dr. Pepper over 24/7 nonstop propaganda. Asshat!
It's inevitabre...! Kim Jong Il: Now you see, the changing of the worrd is inevitabre! Lisa: I'm sorry, it's what? Kim Jong Il: Inevit, inevitabre. Lisa: One more time. Kim Jong Il: [shouts] Inevitabre! Things are inevitabrey going to change! Goddamnit, open your fucking ears!
Let me give you just one example. A doctor goes to NK to treat cataracts using a simple procedure. He cures the blindness of a hundred people in one sitting. When they take the bandages off, the first thing they do when they can see is rush past the doctor to worship the pictures of the Dear Leader and the Great General and thank them for the gift of sight.
Parent is referring to "Inside North Korea", a National Geographic documentary by Lisa Ling. It's on Netflix instant right now. Happened to catch it last night, and it's a rare and interesting view inside the country.
Hell, Esmerelda County, NV is probably a lot easier to get to for most /.ers and nearly as remote.
I can see the fnords!
At my university, the Environmental Science department has offices next to the ROTC staff - I commented on this apparent irony to one of the Environmental Science guys, and he pointed out that a side-effect of military' bases secure zones as wildlife preserves. That effect isn't limited to DMZs per se; here's a local example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seneca_White_Deer
Good job on his part fishing for a connection between two apparently-unrelated things, I do that all the time in other fields.
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
How do you STOP a radio signal? These are ordinary chinese towers to which ordinary chinese telephones connect. That they come from the south instead of the north would not be impossible to block but not a standard on how cellphones work. And why would China?
North Korea isn't just a buffer for them between and the US but also a very nice "You think you got it bad Hong Kong? It can be worse." Any Chinese person who wonders if the Chinese communist regime is repressive only has to look south. It is kinda like Jews in England, a very anti-semitic nation, but compared to the main land, not so bad after all.
North Korea is a bad spot for the entire world but the cold war (that the USSR has for now stopped playing doesn't mean the cold war is over, or did you foolishly believe Reagan?) has kept many a regime that shouldn't be in power.
Do you think the US really wants its soldiers on the border of China (if korea was re-united) and deal with Chinese refugees? It is not so much that any country likes or supports North Korea but changing the status quo is VERY risky and the aftermaths of Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, the collapse of the USSR, Israel, India/Pakistan make the world powers very hesistant to change the borders of the world. So what if millions die, they die all the times. Nobody cares. (And don't think that because you bought/pirated a live aid CD that you did, because nobody needs to starve on this planet if some people didn't hog all the resources. Like me, and I have to admit in my deep dark soul that I don't care if some child dies in Afrika as long as it exports the chocolate and peanuts to feed my fat belly)
But don't think the Chinese government is somehow being nice. They send any refugee they capture back, to certain death without any hesistation. Kinda like the US sending mexicans to a country to a war torn apart by the drugs the same US seems to need.
World politics, very depressing.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Ah, Goldfield... it's no Belmont, but, really, what is?
You know you're either trolling or an incredibly dense American urban hipster with no grasp of self-awareness when you decide that "advertisements", "light pollution" and "cars" are infinitely worse than "starvation", "corruption", "bad trading", and "living under the iron-clad rule of a megalomaniac".
You know what's worse than advertisements? Not being able to buy anything because there's nothing to buy. No food, no clothes, no nothing. You know what's worse than light pollution? Not being able to turn the lights on at night. You know what's worse than cars and traffic? An ox cart pulled by a malnourished ox that you're seriously considering turning into food this winter, even though the meat's tougher than nails and it means you'll have to pull your plow by hand next spring. But, hey, it's that or starve.
But, hey, that fixie you were riding on before you posted your nonsense on this thread will totally come in handy in the Middle Ages-meets-zombie apocalypse world you have mapped out in your sociopathic head as an "ideal utopia" for your urban hipster douchebaggery. Good luck with that.
For more "through the looking glass" reporting from North Korea, try the Vice Guide. Similar to Lisa Ling's reporting, but with a more bizarre bent. One must see on the insanity of the regime is the museum of "tribute" from foreign leaders. They've collected all of the stupid little chachkies that various diplomats brought from around the world - plates with state seals, porcelain stuff from the gift shop, whatever - and placed them in a huge under-ground bunker museum. The official position is that these are items of tribute from every leader around the world who recognize that "Dear Leader" is the greatest leader and North Korea is the greatest country. Really.
Except there's a SOUTH Korea with a rather NICE economic situation, plenty of innovation, a bit cleaner government, and booming trade. It's not all that far.
Have you been to south korea? Outside Seoul? Have you seen Seoul on google maps? Makes the Paris banlieue look like paradise. In the countryside the villages are shanty towns and people are dirt poor. Like the massive amount of poor people in the USA many do have cars however.
S Korea treat their people like slaves to the Chaebol. The Police drop acid on strikers and the government produces advertising cough.. propaganda... that makes the commercials in Robocop pale in comparison.
Wow, the North Korean shutterbugs probably got better gear selection than counterparts in the much ballyhooed India.
Pictures leaked out of India isn't much rosier.
North Korea government murders so many peoples every day that this just isn't funny.
Such situation can be actually true, and an someone innocent, that has already miserable life will suffer even more now
Linux forever
Life is such grand comedy. Alas, it's tragic, dark comedy...
"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
Life is funny, once you get past it.
Yeah, except you didn't really understand the points he made.
Would you say Congo is ideally located? No? Imagine pumping in trillions of dollars and voilà you have a developing nation and not a third world country. North Korea has no natural resources. A nation bordering (and acting as a buffer zone for) a superpower, or two none the less, is not ideal.
Trading with China and Japan you say? But what about the countless sanctions by UN effectively halting any trade. Where would the revenue come from to innovate, how would you feed 24 million people without food or the ability to acquire food.
The only factor that has kept NK in isolation is the regime. A big no-no. You can't rule a nation according to some fancy cult ideology - yet we let the Vatican, Israel exist not counting all the absurd religions around the globe like scientology. Religious freedom but not ideological freedom? The cold war era is over, democracy is not the best and final, look at Singapore. Innovation should surpass consumer products, that is if we ever want to live in the likes of the Star Trek universe.
The conditions in NK create the need for a decisive penal system, the resources wont allow for any justice system. The fact is, if we lift all sanctions and start cooperating, the threat will be minimized, conditions will improve and the nation will flourish. Why would NK nuke a valuable trading partner? Would NK nuke China? Answer: no.
http://www.korea-dpr.com/
Quite incredible..
Once you get past it? You mean, once you die?
You know you're either trolling or an incredibly dense American urban hipster with no grasp of self-awareness when you decide that "advertisements", "light pollution" and "cars" are infinitely worse than "starvation", "corruption", "bad trading", and "living under the iron-clad rule of a megalomaniac".
You know what's worse than advertisements? Not being able to buy anything because there's nothing to buy. No food, no clothes, no nothing. You know what's worse than light pollution? Not being able to turn the lights on at night. You know what's worse than cars and traffic? An ox cart pulled by a malnourished ox that you're seriously considering turning into food this winter, even though the meat's tougher than nails and it means you'll have to pull your plow by hand next spring. But, hey, it's that or starve.
But, hey, that fixie you were riding on before you posted your nonsense on this thread will totally come in handy in the Middle Ages-meets-zombie apocalypse world you have mapped out in your sociopathic head as an "ideal utopia" for your urban hipster douchebaggery. Good luck with that.
I resent this post... Don't you know that the American way is to spout off "facts" that you don't have a clue about and be super pretentious about how you're doing your part to make the world better, and if it wasn't for the (conservatives | liberals | whoever disagrees) that just don't get it, we'd have a (socialist | capitalist | name your fantasy land) utopia?
I think you don't appreciate how important self-importance is to our culture... Stop trying to really solve problems and start screaming out all your preconceived notions while blasting dehumanizing labels at anyone that prefers a different flavor of kool-aid...
+1 Simply Awesome
Thank you for pointing me to the Vice guide to North Korea. A very interesting watch. The Tea Girl broke my heart..