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North Korea To Enable Mobile Internet Access — For Visitors Only

Posted by Soulskill on from the visitors-get-free-nukes-too dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The BBC reports that the reclusive country of North Korea is planning to enable 3G mobile internet access. It will not be available to the country's estimated one million mobile users, however. The service will be available only to international visitors, who have been allowed to bring their own mobile devices into the country since January of this year. The decision comes shortly after Google Chairman Eric Schmidt said enabling 3G internet in the country would be 'very easy' during his recent visit there. Currently, North Korean citizens can only access a small number of state-controlled sites. Might this decision open the door for some of them to surreptitiously access the open net?"

9 of 114 comments (clear)

  1. Spying... by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Almost certainly just to troll for information... Like taking a laptop to China...

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    1. Re:Spying... by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Surely using something like Tor or a VPN would prevent...

      Not if they block these things. And using encryption might just get your phone/tablet/whatever removed from your custody...

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    2. Re:Spying... by AK+Marc · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yes, I've seen that. There's FUD in there, but no facts. Has it ever happened at least once? What did they install? Nope, no facts, just scare stories about what "could" happen. But there are real stories with real names and verifiable facts about siezed laptops in the US. But that's ok, because FUD lies trump reality because we like the US better than China.

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    3. Re:Spying... by BasilBrush · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I would. When was the last time N Korea arrested visitors saying they were CIA spies? On the contrary, N Korea is very welcoming to foreigners, including Americans. It seems they want to impress them, not arrest them. This 3G internet for visitors seems another step in the same direction.

      It's their own people they persecute. And the South Koreans, who they consider to be traitors to a unified Korea.

  2. wait by nej4ugi · · Score: 3, Funny

    Somebody goes there by their own will?

    1. Re:wait by GameboyRMH · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Just journalists documenting how weird North Korea is. Some of the articles are pretty hilarious:

      http://www.vice.com/read/north-korea-fun-fair-mangyongdae-hoban-death

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  3. Things may be changing ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's possible that we're witnessing a gradual sea-change in NK's politics.

    Kim Jong-un was pretty much obliged to make a show of strength upon taking office - launching "satellites" and testing "nukes". This ensures that he doesn't get overthrown by his own people, or "liberated" by you-know-who.

    Kim Junior has experienced the outside world, and he may well believe that it is in everybody's best interests, even his, to gradually open it up to his people. Time will tell.

    1. Re:Things may be changing ... by AK+Marc · · Score: 4, Insightful

      For all we know, Junior wants to open up NK completely, but he expects to catch a bullet in the brain from the military generals if he does all he wants to do. So he's doing what he can when he can. And he'll either liberate NK, or die trying.

      Or maybe he really thinks that NK could be a resort for the world, and is as loony as Dad.

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  4. Re:It's no wonder Korea is so behind the times by masternerdguy · · Score: 3, Informative

    North Korea is an inexcusable mess of a country that wouldn't even exist today without China's external backing. China actually disagrees with North Korea's policies, but the *idea* of communism (even though NK's implementation is the worst on Earth) still holds a lot of patriotic sway in China (being the only successful communist country). I personally can't wait for NK to actually do something stupid so China drops their support (do you really think China wants to be involved in some kind of war because the "ally" they babysit is misbehaving, hell no!) and that little country collapses in on itself.

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