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North Korea Blocks Data Access For Foreigners

Posted by timothy on from the I-suspect-it's-just-a-time-warner-problem dept.

According to Reuters, foreigners in North Korea who formerly had online access via the country's 3G network have now been blocked from using it, in the wake of a fire at Pyongyang's Koryo Hotel, though it was not immediately clear whether the two events are related. Vox.com has an interesting look into what internet access is like for North Koreans, but as the linked Reuters report explains, access is in general much freer for residents as well as visiting foreigners.

18 of 28 comments (clear)

  1. Wow by Travis+Mansbridge · · Score: 3, Funny

    North Korea provided internet access for foreigners?

    1. Re:Wow by thisisauniqueid · · Score: 4, Informative

      Yes, foreigners have had Internet access for about 3 years now. (There are a few hundred foreigners posted in North Korea at any given time.) Of course network traffic is monitored, and everyone using the network knows that, but journalists visiting North Korea have used the network to get stories out quickly.

      There are two different cellphone networks in the country -- the network used by locals, with up to 2 million subscribers already, and with only country-wide intranet access, and the network used by foreigners. You can't place calls between the two networks, and the phones on the two networks look different, so that North Korean minders can easily spot a local using a foreign cellphone illegally.

    2. Re: Wow by Type44Q · · Score: 1

      Apparently someone at the hotel was caught downloading a kimchee recipe from a South Korean IP address (there are cultural protections in place for a reason ).

    3. Re:Wow by operagost · · Score: 2

      Nazi rule in Europe

      Yup

      Communist China's cultural revolution

      Definitely.

      and segregation in the USA

      Which one of these is not like the others? I mean, besides segregation being nowhere near the greatest evil in history, American segregation wasn't even that impressive. Have you even heard of South Africa? They were so worried about foreign challenges to their way of life that there were no TV stations there until the 1970s. The cultural turnaround was remarkable.

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    4. Re:Wow by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 2

      I mean, besides segregation being nowhere near the greatest evil in history, American segregation wasn't even that impressive.

      This is slashdot, and some here just have to make everything worse in 'murrica.

      The fun is calling them on it, and watching their stories get dumber and dumber.

      Segregation, especially in the south was plenty bad enough in itself, and a national embarassment, but trying to compare it in scope to the holocaust shows a remarkable level of dumfuk.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    5. Re:Wow by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      trying to compare [segregation] in scope to the holocaust shows a remarkable level of dumfuk.

      Comparing censorship of a few hundred cellphones to the Holocaust is even dumber.

  2. Expect an updated U.S. travel advisory. by tlambert · · Score: 1

    Expect an updated U.S. travel advisory.

    The U.S. Department of State normally handles travel advisory updates to U.S. citizens traveling to North Korea via email over the 3G network to mobile devices owned by the citizens, routed through the embassy in China. All other consular services are generally handled through the Swedish embassy in North Korea, including an agreement requiring their notification within four days of an arrest or other detainment of a U.S. citizen.

    I suspect that the U.S. will potentially be prohibiting travel.

    1. Re:Expect an updated U.S. travel advisory. by linuxrocks123 · · Score: 2

      It is arguable that the US is constitutionally prohibited from restricting US citizen travel. Technically, during the Cuba travel ban, it was spending money in Cuba that was prohibited, not traveling there.

      The US State Department already urges US citizens, in the strongest terms, not to travel to North Korea:

      http://travel.state.gov/conten...

      Anyone who does anyway is a fool.

      --
      vi ~/.emacs # I'm probably going to Hell for this.
    2. Re:Expect an updated U.S. travel advisory. by TheDarkMaster · · Score: 1

      Seriously, I wonder why anyone would want to travel to a literal hellhole like North Korea.

      --
      Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
    3. Re:Expect an updated U.S. travel advisory. by TheCastro1689 · · Score: 1

      http://korea-dpr.com/kfa_trave... because what they show you and how they treat you as a visitor seems pretty nice from all the documentaries I've seen.

    4. Re:Expect an updated U.S. travel advisory. by Xrikcus · · Score: 1

      Right. It's a pleasant experience for an organised tour. From the tourist point of view much less of a hell hole than all sorts of places you can visit in more liberal countries - including poorer parts of the US. Of course, in a large part that's because they are presenting an image to try to make the place seem better than it really is. In reality they do a good enough job to make the tour pleasant, but not a good enough job to make you come away thinking it's the utopia they would like to make out - the reality is pretty hard to hide. You can get enough of a gist of what they don't want to show you to see something of the underlying situation.

      The US takes a far harder line on NK travel advice than other countries do. Partly because the authorities really do dislike the US and have been known to take that out on American citizens. Partly presumably for the same underlying reason the US has such a harsh line on travel to Cuba that other countries do not have. After all, I don't think many people outside the US believe the Cuba travel/spending ban is intended to benefit Cubans. There were Americans on our tour, though, and they were well treated. This was all long enough ago that they still held mobile phones at the airport, but my understanding is that rules have relaxed considerably since then both in terms of phones and freedom to leave the hotel without a guide.

      The bigger challenge with travel to NK is the ethical question about giving money to the authorities there when paying for travel in the first place. We were torn on that for a long time before deciding to go. In the end we decided to largely because it would be better to see something of it than to jump to conclusions.

    5. Re:Expect an updated U.S. travel advisory. by Blaskowicz · · Score: 1

      At least if you do it you're pampered and it's safe, unless you act out (say run to one particular statue and piss on it, or grope a female soldier)

      I wouldn't want to travel to Myanmar, Yemen or Erythrea. I don't know if these places are better for their inhabitants but I also don't know exactly what kind of shit I would be risking going there.
      In comparison going to North Korea sounds like attending religious service as a gay atheist, or visiting a mosque.

    6. Re:Expect an updated U.S. travel advisory. by Kiwikwi · · Score: 1

      At least if you do it you're pampered and it's safe, unless you act out (say run to one particular statue and piss on it, or grope a female soldier)

      Right. According to the above mentioned Travel Warning from the U.S. State Department, the following then qualifies as "acting out" and can be cause for arrest:

      * involvement in unsanctioned religious and/or political activities (whether those activities took place inside or outside North Korea)
      * unauthorized or unescorted travel inside North Korea
      * unauthorized interaction with the local population, including unauthorized attempts to speak directly to North Korean citizens
      * exchanging currency with an unauthorized vendor
      * taking unauthorized photographs
      * shopping at stores not designated for foreigners

      (The warning then goes on to say that "If DPRK authorities permit you to keep your cell phone upon entry into the country, please keep in mind that you have no right to privacy in North Korea and should assume your communications are monitored." So at least some things are just like in the US.)

  3. Koryo by Whiteox · · Score: 2

    So the Koryo hotel catches fire and the Koryolink internet service goes down.
    I wonder if there is a connection here somewhere?

    --
    Don't be apathetic. Procrastinate!
    1. Re:Koryo by thisisauniqueid · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Actually, Koryo (Goryeo) is the name of one of the most important and longest Korean dynasties, following Silla, Baekje and Gogoreyeo. It's where the English name "Korea" comes from. A lot of things have the name "Koryo" in North Korea, and some things in South Korea. The North Korean name for Korea is Choson, the name of the dynasty that was built following the overthrow of the Koryo dynasty.

      The South Korean name for Korea is Hanguk, "country of the Han" (that's the Korean Han, which uses a different Chinese character than the Chinese Han character representing the Han people that fought the Manchurians). To a South Korean, "Choson" sounds like a very backward name for Korea. To a North Korean, "Hanguk" sounds like a label imposed by imperialistic invaders.

    2. Re:Koryo by dunkelfalke · · Score: 1

      joseon/chosen (when it was part of japan) and daehan jeguk before that.

      --
      "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
  4. Or it could have just been an outage... by Porbes · · Score: 2

    Not to let facts get in the way of a good conspiracy, but there was a fairly widespread outage around the same time that may well have been the reason, since they did say they were disabling it due service problems with their upstream provider.

  5. jam the frequency ranges? by peter303 · · Score: 1

    Perhaps a weakness of GPS in times of war too.