Kim Jong-Il Was an "Internet Expert"

pigrabbitbear writes "The late Kim Jong Il made many bizarre claims and bestowed upon himself many extravagant titles during his iron-clad rule over North Korea. But here's one that's particularly interesting in light of the recent SOPA debate – 'Internet expert.' The DPRK's Dear Leader fancied himself as such during an international summit in 2007. Seven years prior, he had asked U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright for her email address, indicating that the North Korean internet black hole was perhaps not as thoroughly opaque as we made it out to be — at least not for those at the top."

Comments

It's DEAR LEADER

[Anonymous Coward]

But Glorious Leader was the first to truly MASTER it.

And, unlike Gore, Glorious Leader at least put his money where his mouth was on global warming. At the time of his death his country used less electricity than any other Asian country and he had decreased its carbon footprint significantly by reducing its population by over a million people in just 15 years. And no polluting Western factories spewing carbon dioxide into the air or wasteful beef production in Glorious Leader's country. Suck on THAT, China and Western imperialists!

It's "Dear Leader," not "Glorious Leader." (His daddy was "Great Leader." And so far, Junior is "Great Successor," which reveals a lot about how the state apparatus views the new kid.)

Re:Pr0n expert?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why would he need the internet for that? He already had a Joy Brigade.

Typical computer

[f1vlad]

This is what typical computer lab looks in North Korean school: http://tema.ru/travel/north-korea-3/_MG_0082.jpg I guess if you are the only one in the country who has a modern computer, that'll make you an internet expert :)

Re:Sure, Al Gore may have INVENTED it

[iluvcapra]

This would be funnier if Al Gore had actually claimed that he invented the Internet, and the whole story hadn't been invented to make him look silly.

Re:Sure, Al Gore may have INVENTED it

[iluvcapra]

Newt Gingrich:

In all fairness, it’s something Gore had worked on a long time. Gore is not the Father of the Internet, but in all fairness, Gore is the person who, in the Congress, most systematically worked to make sure that we got to an Internet, and the truth is—and I worked with him starting in 1978 when I got [to Congress], we were both part of a “futures group”—the fact is, in the Clinton administration, the world we had talked about in the ’80s began to actually happen.

Vint Cerf:

Al Gore was the first political leader to recognize the importance of the Internet and to promote and support its development.

Al Gore's original statement was factual. Somebody at the RNC made a separate statement that was a lie, attributed it to Gore and then attacked him for it. The first link clearly illustrates how it was misquoted once by the RNC in a press release the following week, and then the misquote was reproduced as a quote, because the only people being quoted were the people who were complaining. It was all a game to troll the press and to spend so much time complaining about an imaginary quote that it would take all the time away from talking about the real one.