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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!
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.
TFA says that this is a pseudonym.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
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!
Kim, is close to the 'average' nature of a name like Smith in Korea.
Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
I have a "local expectation" that in a totalitarian state, there exists a reasonable chance that if they want him, he will eventually be identified, generic name or not.
To answer your question - yes. Lots of us care about North Korea.
It does suck to feel pretty helpless for the most part though there are a number of avenues available to help in small ways. Humans are a varied bunch in a number of ways and while you have one view point, many hold others.
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?
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?
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.
Well, with the "I can't" attitude, you're right. But if you stopped thinking individually, instead more along the lines of "We can't" - then you'd be lying, because there is a lot that we can do together.
The reason why people make these videos and images isn't so that 1 person on the other side of the border can feel sympathy and try to revolutionize everythings - its for massive appeal to as many people as possible, so that a large group of people might undertake humanitarian efforts.
But - I mean, go ahead with that attitude. Does anyone really care about you? I mean, I've hardly interacted with you, but there isn't anything I can do to change your mind, you aren't a priority. In fact - I can't do anything about anything my own country - my one vote is drowned by millions of others, my recycling efforts are negated by others negligance, and even my job is so replacable by someone else that my contributions to society are really nothing.
If you don't feel particularily humanitarian about something - like you don't want to help the North Koreans, that's absolutely fine. Freedom of opinion. But don't parade it under the guise that "I would if I could".
I sure hope there is no one ACTUALLY named Kim Dong-cheol then.
North Korean secret police: Are you Kim Dong-cheol?
KDC: Yes sir, but not the one who is in this article!
Police: Better safe than sorry, you get 12 years hard labor.
KDC: I'm not a driver for any corporation! I don't have any cameras!
Police: Well then 20 years for embarrassing dear leader!
And, oddly, he's used at least 6 different faces and different accents, while keeping the same name.
I care.
Millions of people as slaves to a totalitarian monarchy and millions of men under arms destabilizing the entire region.
If there was an opening of the DPRK, following the refugee crisis and 10-20 years of economic hardship for the Republic of Korea to bring the north into Third World status, the United States, Japan, and RoK would all be able to back forces from the brink of war, downsize military spending and remove a nuclear threat from the region.
The US would be able to fold up an Army division, forward Marine base and most of an Air Force alone.
Furthermore it would be one less thing where the US and Japan oppose the Russian Federation and People's Republic of China.
The name was the important thing for inspiring the necessary fear. You see, no one would surrender to the Dread Pirate Westley...
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
Yeah but there is no oil there, so who gives a fuck.
yes, clearly that's the *biggest* plausibility issue with the James Bond franchise.
Well, the starvation is shocking to those of us with an iota of compassion.
Also, some of the ridiculous follies of the government are just plain funny.
Example A: the worlds ugliest permanently unfinished hotel.
Example B: To save on electricity, traffic is directed by police, evidently only women and they only turn counterclockwise. I guess because dear leader only likes it when girls turn counterclockwise.
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.
So Kim Il Sung is a bit like ... Joseph Smith?
xkcd is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
No, they fought for what they thought was a better life and were misled and betrayed by their leaders.
Still, if the article is factually accurate with the information they give I wouldn't want to be the guy. They've got pictures from 3 different locations that the guy has been including pictures of people he's been in contact with. Now it seems that the pictures are careful to avoid landmarks and identifying features but a good, well equipped intelligence service would probably be able to identify him just based on the pictures and his stated occupation. North Korea's internal intelligence certainly has the practice, whether they have the data and equipment needed to do the analysis I don't know.
"Kim" is even more common a surname in Korea than "Smith" is in English-speaking countries,. It's held by about 1/5 of the population, and if you were to put all of the Kims, Lees, and Parks together, you'd have nearly half of all Koreans right there.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
For more reporting on the opaque world that is North Korea, I recommend the Vice Guide to North Korea. Similar to the reporting in the article, this is a hand-held digital camera video documentary done without government approval, but told by a westerner with only officially approved access. Even so, he manages to convey some of the desolation that is the communist dictatorship. The presentation put on by his hosts in hopes of showing off the might of the North Korean state fully supports the reputation they've earned of being "crazy".
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.
Life is such grand comedy. Alas, it's tragic, dark comedy...
"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."