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Postcard From Pyongyang: The Airport Now Has Wi-Fi, Sort of (apnews.com)

Eric Talmadge, writing for AP: North Korea is one of the least Wi-Fi-friendly countries in the world. Having a device that emits Wi-Fi signals can result in detention and a major fine. Worse, if you are a North Korean. Public use of the internet is a concept that just makes North Korean officials really nervous. But here's a sign that might be changing. North Korea's main internet provider appears to have put up a Wi-Fi trial balloon at the international departure area of Pyongyang's airport. It's a logical place to start. The service is only available, or even visible, to travelers who have already cleared customs, which included me last week. The reporter was unable to actually get the Wi-Fi to work, however.

141 comments

  1. Honey ... by CaptainDork · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ... pot.

    --
    It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
    1. Re: Honey ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Um, no. How exactly is this a honeypot? Do tell.

      More likely, the DPRK is interested in portraying themselves favorably to international audiences. That's why they're allowed more media in Pyongyang when it suits their purposes. Adding wifi is making it easier for Western journalists to communicate images of what the DPRK wants them to show. At the same time, they get to snoop on the communications and perhaps obtain sensitive information in the process.

      Why would this be a honeypot? It's of far more value to the DPRK if the wifi works.

    2. Re:Honey ... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 3, Informative

      A honeypot doesn't work if you can't log in. This is an example of Hanlon's Razor.

      The Norks have figured out how to build and launch ICBMs, but setting up a functioning Wifi hotspot is still beyond their capability.

    3. Re:Honey ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A honeypot doesn't work if you can't log in.

      If you cannot get your log into her honeypot then you're doing it wrong.

    4. Re: Honey ... by olsmeister · · Score: 2

      At the same time, they get to snoop on the communications and perhaps obtain sensitive information in the process.

      Soooo..... Honeypot?

    5. Re:Honey ... by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

      Well, in their defense they were using a Netgear router, and those things can be a pain to setup...

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    6. Re:Honey ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Norks have figured out how to build and launch ICBMs, but setting up a functioning Wifi hotspot is still beyond their capability.

      Not only that, but they adapted stolen NSA source code to launch the most successful attack on the global financial system the world has seen. And they still can't find anyone to set up the country's only WiFi hotspot properly. Its almost as if they aren't really capable of anything and there is some fake news aka propaganda going on here to sell the world on the need to launch a counter-attack despite the threat of nuclear mutually assured destruction.

  2. Free wifi... by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 1, Troll

    and free vacation in a concentration camp if you use more than 1 MB :)

    1. Re: Free wifi... by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Funny

      Damn right. My grandpa died in a concentration camp.

      He was drunk and fell off a watchtower, but still.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re: Free wifi... by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 2

      Gallows humor, no offense intended. For what it's worth, I never met my grandfather. He died in front of a German firing squad in 1942 while my grandmother was pregnant with my mother. His sister just spent the next three years in a concentration camp, being subject to medical experiments. She survived. Barely.

    3. Re: Free wifi... by TheCastro1689 · · Score: 2

      Concentration camps are used in N Korea and other countries still have them as well. It's not really racially insensitive when they aren't used exclusively against a race. Even the Nazis put political opponents in concentrations camps.

    4. Re: Free wifi... by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 1

      I think the "parent" was the (over-used) joke about the drunk guard, not the grand-parent (my comment).

    5. Re: Free wifi... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      North Korea has their own form of concentration camps. It's not making light of them or being racist in any way. The problem is people that find something ism in every possible thing people say.

    6. Re: Free wifi... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ah, yes, that must have been the concentration camp equivalent of F-Troop your grandfather served at!

    7. Re: Free wifi... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Vinegar joe is an ACTUAL NAZI FAGGOT who needs to have his faggot head cut off.

    8. Re: Free wifi... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Racially insensitive comments like the parent should not be getting modded up. What is wrong with people?

      Oh, go fuck yourself.

      Humorless scolds telling other people how to think need to be bitch-slapped to the moon - whether they're fundamentalist Christian Bible-thumpers or close-minded, self-righteous SJWs.

      FWIW, at least even the worst of the thumpers won't physically attack you if you disagree with them...

      So, gleefully repeating myself: GO FUCK YOURSELF

    9. Re: Free wifi... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Gallows humor, no offense intended. For what it's worth, I never met my grandfather. He died in front of a German firing squad in 1942 while my grandmother was pregnant with my mother. His sister just spent the next three years in a concentration camp, being subject to medical experiments. She survived. Barely.

      I do wonder what you think of self-styled "anti-Fascists" calling Donald Trump a Fascist and a Nazi...

    10. Re: Free wifi... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "concentration camp" means a camp where people are rounded up. The US has used them many times. The most recent one was WWII. They were called "concentration camp"s at the time.

      After the Nazis, "concentration camp" has come to mean "death camp" to many. That was never its linguistic meaning. That you can't understand the meaning of it doesn't mean it means what you think it means.

      DPRK has "concentration camps". They just don't kill all the occupants, and have no Jews to gas.

    11. Re: Free wifi... by sound+vision · · Score: 1

      The term "concentration camp" heavily implies a particular race (or similar broadly categorized group) being concentrated there for the purpose of removing that group from the general population. Not individual dissidents or troublemakers who are there for specific crimes. (Crimes against the state, for example.)

      Work camp, labor camp, prison camp, maybe even death camp... there's many better-suited terms to choose from.

    12. Re: Free wifi... by Altrag · · Score: 1

      similar broadly categorized group

      Typically the "broadly categorized group" is "anyone who doesn't agree with us." Race has little bearing on it. Race only really comes into play in the sense that concentration camps are usually setup during war times and you're typically warring against another race/culture/country.

      And of course definitions change over time. There were as many German concentration camps in North America as there were Japanese ones, or perhaps more. But of course these days Germans are thought of as part of the "white" race rather than the "German" race, because modern Germany is well-integrated with Europe (then again, we don't really think of Russians as a different "race" either and they're not so well integrated.. its always so messy and confusing when we try to arbitrarily label significant fractions of an entire planet's population isn't it?!)

  3. Why does Europe tolerate Kim Jong-Un? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why does Europe tolerate Kim Jong-Un? Europe could pressure Russia and China into putting an end to the DPRK's antics, yet they look the other way. Now the DPRK probably has biological weapons to go along with their nuclear arsenal and ICBMs. If the DPRK attacks South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, or the United States, then Europeans will have blood on their hands.

    1. Re:Why does Europe tolerate Kim Jong-Un? by jellomizer · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The United States tolerates other countries operated by dictators with ruthless policies as well.

      Normally "good" countries tolerate "bad" countries when...
      1. The "Bad" country has something the "Good" country wants or needs.
      2. The "Bad" country isn't in direct competition, to the "Good" countries self interests.
      3. The "Bad" country just isn't that important.
      4. The "Bad" country is upholding a policy, borders, and or anything else that promotes the "Good" countries self interest.
      5. The "Bad" country is a line of defense from a "Worse" country that the "Good" country is having problems with.

      For the most part Countries respect the sovereignty that an other country has, and realizes its morals and polices will not match their own. Other countries looking at us, can probably find many things that we do, that are just as reprehensible as we accuse them for doing.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    2. Re:Why does Europe tolerate Kim Jong-Un? by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 0

      Are you stupid or something? China is a 300 pound gorilla that wants to overrun the planet. Russia is run by a butthurt ex-KGB agent-turned-organized-crime-uberboss that wants to bring back the Good Old Days and create Soviet Union 2p0. Between the two of them they'd love to smash the NATO alliance, see the United States and it's allied countries shattered, and then have a death-match between the two of them for who gets control of the planet. If it were possible to 'force' either one of them, let alone both, to do anything, believe you me when I say the rest of the planet has an entire wish list of things they'd dearly love to 'force' them to do. The only reason China and Russia both don't just stomp a big fat boot-print on the entirety of North Korea is they like having Kim Jong Un stirring shit up with the West and keep us off balance, having to deal with their insanity, while they're off trying to annex the North China Sea and soft-invade former Soviet block countries in Eastern Europe.

    3. Re:Why does Europe tolerate Kim Jong-Un? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      China is a 300 pound gorilla that wants to overrun the planet.

      You realize that a 300 pound gorilla would be a skinny little runt, right?

    4. Re:Why does Europe tolerate Kim Jong-Un? by xvan · · Score: 1

      Why does Europe tolerate Israel? Europe could pressure America and Canada into putting an end to the Israel's antics, yet they look the other way. Now the Israel probably has biological weapons to go along with their nuclear arsenal and ICBMs. If the Israel attacks Sira, Iran or Palestine, then Europeans will have blood on their hands.

      Does that sound crazy? So do you.

    5. Re:Why does Europe tolerate Kim Jong-Un? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You realize your mother smoked and drank when she was carrying you, right?

    6. Re:Why does Europe tolerate Kim Jong-Un? by chill · · Score: 1

      Did you just fat shame gorillas? :-)

      --
      Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
    7. Re:Why does Europe tolerate Kim Jong-Un? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Female gorillas weigh about 200 pounds.

    8. Re:Why does Europe tolerate Kim Jong-Un? by BronsCon · · Score: 1

      No, he shamed skinny ones.

      --
      APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
    9. Re:Why does Europe tolerate Kim Jong-Un? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sounds like you truly believe american propaganda.

    10. Re:Why does Europe tolerate Kim Jong-Un? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If they are an illegal state, how were they given borders?

    11. Re:Why does Europe tolerate Kim Jong-Un? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey Bill Krystol, why don't you use your real name as your nick?

    12. Re:Why does Europe tolerate Kim Jong-Un? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's a good question. And the answer has a lot to do with the Holocaust. In the US we have radical right wing extremists that are waiting for Israel to start a nuclear war so we can have the rapture.

      Israel itself is an illegal state and needs to be removed before they get everybody killed. They can't even be bothered to stick to the questionable borders they were given.

      Funny how you're the 'tard promoting genocide of Jews...

      Why do I have the feeling that you've also referred to Donald Trump as a Nazi?

      Irony - it's not something you use to get the wrinkles out of your clothing.

    13. Re:Why does Europe tolerate Kim Jong-Un? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The UK invaded the area, and held it, as a recognized territory. At the end of WWII, they wanted out, so they left, effectively granting it to refugees, jewish and palestinian. The palestinians were happy with this, until non-palestinian enemies started attacking Israel under the name of palestine. Then, we got the shit-show we have now, because the palestinians refused to self-police groups using their name.

    14. Re:Why does Europe tolerate Kim Jong-Un? by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 2
      Why does Europe tolerate Kim Jong-Un?

      Because there is about half the world between us and them, and the people in the middle have a lot of guns and little sense of humour - especially the Americans and Russians (who have the biggest lumps of land between us and NK).

      KJU probably is not a major threat to us - he is more of a laughing stock. Sure he is a major threat to his own people - but as we all should know by now, interfering in other country's affairs does not generally improve the situation. Its not impossible that his own people will decide they might as well kill him - they are going to die anyway - why not take him with them.

      If we do in the "American way" (go in with all guns blazing) it will end the way it always does - masses of "collateral damage" and no significant change in the big picture. This is not traditionally our preferred approach.

      --
      Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
    15. Re: Why does Europe tolerate Kim Jong-Un? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The same can be said from the other point of view:
      Why is North Korea tolerating a shitty America infested by lying libturds?

    16. Re:Why does Europe tolerate Kim Jong-Un? by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      and create Soviet Union 2p0.

      I'd call that Russian Empire version 3. The Soviet Union was to a large extent the Russian Empire with new ideology.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    17. Re:Why does Europe tolerate Kim Jong-Un? by Ken+McE · · Score: 2

      North Korea is like an insane pit bull that China keeps chained up on their back porch. Nobody sane is going to go around there, they know it will automatically bite the living fark out of them. This suits China just fine. If someone *did* mess with the dog they would quickly find that it's master was coming out with the shotgun and a bad attitude, and was even worse to deal with than the dog.

    18. Re:Why does Europe tolerate Kim Jong-Un? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Israel itself is an illegal state

      The only one ever which the UN voted for.

      needs to be removed before they get everybody killed

      And just how you're intending to do that without getting everybody killed? Perhaps it's your futile attempts to destroy Israel which are the threat to everyone.

    19. Re:Why does Europe tolerate Kim Jong-Un? by jrumney · · Score: 1

      Europe could pressure Russia and China into putting an end to the DPRK's antics...

      I guess they could, but it is more fun to laugh at the US's pathetic failed attempts to do the same.

    20. Re: Why does Europe tolerate Kim Jong-Un? by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      Well thank you comrade. For following the standard Russian Social Media response to try to push an agenda to keep Americans polarized politically, and bring up doubt on the morals of a competing country. Putin will be proud.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    21. Re:Why does Europe tolerate Kim Jong-Un? by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

      yeah yeah it's supposed to be "800 pound gorilla", I know, I know

      I just love how so many people on the Internets will get so pedantically caught up in a metaphor mangled and completely ignore the reason for the metaphor. :-(

  4. Unacceptable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    First nukes, then using autism kroners to evade sanctions and now a WiFi balloon that doesnâ(TM)t even work for a millenial to check Facebook? Time to get rekt, dear leader

    1. Re:Unacceptable by arth1 · · Score: 2

      They can't even get an access point to work, yet we should believe our fuhrer when he blames them for quite sophisticated hacking.

    2. Re: Unacceptable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's illogical.

      It's like saying that because Congress is inept at passing the most basic legislation, there's no way the NSA would be capable of spying on American and foreign citizens. It's two different parts of the government, and the ineptitude of one part does not imply that the other is equally inept.

    3. Re:Unacceptable by Hal_Porter · · Score: 1

      autism kroners

      This is awesome.

      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
    4. Re: Unacceptable by Hal_Porter · · Score: 2

      The interesting thing about hacking is that you can have a few smart and determined people in a building with a 56K modem and some old computers and they can still do it. You don't need much infrastructure.

      The US's enemies - Iran, China, Russia and North Korea, etc don't really have a shortage of smart people. North Korea has almost no infrastructure, but that doesn't matter for asymmetric things like hacking. In fact if you lived in North Korea, hacking enemies of the state is basically the nearest you can get to entrepreneurship - you'd get a decent apartment, extra rations and protection from the bureaucracy.

      E.g. if you read about how well people like Sakharov lived before they were dissidents

      https://www.hoover.org/researc...

      His embrace of human rights did not come through a sudden conversion. Scrupulously honest, and almost naÃve in his understanding of politics and power, he came to it in stages. Let me give you a brief chronology of the metamorphosis.

      First came his concern about the radioactive fallout from atmospheric testing. But in those years, in the 1950s, the concerns were still new, and raising them was possible within the scientific and political elite. These were issues Sakharov could take up directly with Nikita Khrushchev, even though he was at times rebuffed and put in his place for meddling in politics.

      Then came the Academy of Science elections in 1964 at which Sakharov openly spoke out against accepting an ally of the pseudo-scientist Trofim Lysenko. The Academy of Science, in fact, was probably the closest to a democratic institution in the Soviet state, where full members could still vote to reject a candidate pushed by the Kremlin.

      So far, Sakharov's activities were still within the bounds of permissible debate for someone of his standing in the elite. Yet as Sakharov noted in his Memoirs, the academy vote, like the struggle against atmospheric testing, marked another step on the way to becoming active in civic affairs.

      The turning point for Sakharov, as for the entire dissident movement, came in the mid-1960s. These were years in which Sakharov signed a petition against the rehabilitation of Stalin, followed by a letter against the enactment of the law against defaming the Soviet state, which became the basis for the prosecution of many dissidents, followed by a decision to join in a demonstration on Pushkin Square on Constitution Day.

      Then came his first letter, this one to Leonid Brezhnev, in support of a dissident, and then his involvement in the movement to save Lake Baikal.

      What is amazing to realize now is that in those years, Sakharov had such high rank that he could pick up a special phone and directly call the KGB chief, Yuri Andropov, as he did in 1967 to seek the release of the writers Andrei Sinyavsky and Yuli Daniel.

      These phones, known as vertushka, connected members of the top nomenklatura [chief officials]-I managed to steal one from the Kremlin during the chaos of 1991, and I learned then that the name, vertushka, which means "dial," comes from the fact that the elite network was the first to use dial phones.

      If you're in a hellish totalitarian state helping the powers that be gives you a lot of privilege - not just a nice apartment and elite rations but you're get a vertushka phone you can call the head of the secret police on for a chat.

      And, like I say, places like Russia don't a shortage of smart people. Like this chap

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      Also most Western consumer stuff - iOS, Android, Windows, macOS - is full of vulnerabilities.

      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
    5. Re:Unacceptable by sound+vision · · Score: 1

      In case you hadn't heard, resources (including human) are very limited in North Korea, and the government there is very forceful and particular about what people do. If they have 10 "computer guys" to go around, they may assign all 10 to the hacking part of their asymmetric-warfare plan, and zero to setting up Wi-Fi at the airport.

      Wi-fi at the airport gets the regime nothing. Asymmetric warfare gets the regime nearly everything they have.

    6. Re:Unacceptable by arth1 · · Score: 1

      Exactly. They have so few "computer guys" that it's going to be well near impossible to find any aces among them - none of them grew up with the ability to tinker with computers and networks. Good hackers isn't a profession where you assign people and say "you there, become an expert hacker!"
      There just isn't a viable substrate for experts to grow out of.

    7. Re: Unacceptable by sound+vision · · Score: 1

      They have a smaller pool to work with, but the totalitarian nature of the place assures that 100% of that pool (which is not zero) will probably get drafted to hacker camp before puberty. Just like they do with their couple of rocket scientists and nuclear physicists. The US government has a way bigger pool to draw from, but they don't snap up nearly as high of a percentage - because it wouldn't make sense. A 2,000-hacker team is not 10x better than a 200-hacker team. ESPECIALLY when secrecy is needed.

      With these kind of operations, quantity isn't paramount. That's what categorizes it as asymmetric warfare, and that is precisely why NK is so terribly interested in it.

  5. One last chance ... by ScentCone · · Score: 5, Insightful

    One last chance to hack foreigners' devices on their way out of the country, when they're burned out, less attentive, anxious to connect to the outside world, and jumping right into checking email and other communications. Gee, I wonder why they'd try this.

    --
    Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
  6. Hi I'm a writer for Assoc Press by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I connect to any available Wi-Fi without regard for security concerns. In a country known for hacking.

    No wonder the mainstream media is sinking fast.

    1. Re:Hi I'm a writer for Assoc Press by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I connect to any available Wi-Fi without regard for security concerns. In a country known for hacking.

      No wonder the mainstream media is sinking fast.

      I'd expect a competent reporter to immediately VPN to something secure. That being said, I'm doubtful that is enough any more, at least if your in a hostile nation state. Maybe a dedicated piece of hardware to do the initial tunnel for you, then a second level tunnel on the laptop. Laptops should use competent whole disk encryption. Key cards and the special box should stay with you at all times, and preferably your laptop as well. Of course given it is North Korea any of that or none of that might get you thrown in jail or worse.

      The reason for the dedicated hardware, is you can create something with a minimal attack surface that still runs a VPN. From there you can use an Ethernet cable to your laptop, to a completely separate virtual private network. This slightly isolated the less secure laptop. Make sure one is careful when entering passwords so cameras don't see them. Two factor authentication is also suggested.

    2. Re:Hi I'm a writer for Assoc Press by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      You're probably putting the isolating in the wrong place. Wireless interface firmware is a good place for exploits at the moment, so you should expect that to be compromised if a nation-state adversary cares. It then has complete access to anything on the same bus, so no VPN software on that host is secure. You're better off with a dumb WiFi bridge that provides an Ethernet interface and running a VPN from your laptop, because then they'd need to compromise the bridge, then use that to attack something on the laptop via Ethernet (not impossible, but wired NICs are simpler than wireless and so you're more likely to see an attack on the kernel, which you might at least be able to spot, even if you can't prevent it).

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    3. Re:Hi I'm a writer for Assoc Press by networkBoy · · Score: 2

      If you read his posts you'd know sever things about him:
      1) he *assumes* everything is on the record and monitored at all levels while in country.
      2) he has completely different kit for in and out of DPRK.

      Given that context having his phone or any other device hacked doesn't actually impact him as he's operating on the assumption that such compromise has already happened.

      I assume (no overt post saying so, but given his other posts it seems likely) that once back in Japan he dumps everything DPRK related into a box. and doesn't touch it again until the next trip back.

      --
      whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
    4. Re:Hi I'm a writer for Assoc Press by ArchieBunker · · Score: 1

      I'm more concerned with his tourism money going towards Kim Jong Un's nuclear program.

      --
      Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
    5. Re:Hi I'm a writer for Assoc Press by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ... You're better off with a dumb WiFi bridge that provides an Ethernet interface and running a VPN from your laptop...

      Actually what you suggested is similar to what I implied, save I'd have the dedicated dumb wifi bridge also adding a VPN, where you have to enter in a password somehow, possibly with an additional factor of authentication.

      Then on the main laptop you would connect to it via ethernet and run a completely separate VPN on top of what is provided by the box, for a defense in depth strategy..

      So basically my idea was yours plus a bit. Of course yours is trivially available, while the other might require building a small embedded system to get, or perhaps using a dedicated laptop with maybe one of the BSD operating systems.

      You might be able to do something similar by directly assigning your wifi hardware to say a VM that runs the semi secure OS, then dealing with all the rest, but it is not quite as clean. I'd certainly be wary about trusted windows directly, or off the shelf linux for that matter. Maybe you could RDP into a real machine from say a hardened linux laptop. Then the sensitive info is never transferred save for the RDP view. I'd still have a VPN up before I attempted that though.

  7. the most glaring question from the blurb by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ummm.... "which included me last week"??? Why actually does anybody who is not already a prisoner in that hellhole actually choose to go there for any reason whatsoever?

    1. Re:the most glaring question from the blurb by dysmal · · Score: 1

      Clearly you've never been to New Jersey!

    2. Re: the most glaring question from the blurb by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nobody goes TO New Jersey. You just go through while they reach into you pocket for toll money...

    3. Re:the most glaring question from the blurb by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He was paid to. That was included in the blurb, as he is an AP employee, you are a fucking idiot.

  8. The reporter was unable to get it working by nospam007 · · Score: 1

    That's because the only one who got the real password is Dennis Rodman.

  9. Why would you go to North Korea intentionally? by sjbe · · Score: 4, Interesting

    North Korea is one of the least Wi-Fi-friendly countries in the world.

    They could drop the word Wi-Fi from that sentence and it would still be true. I really cannot fathom any sane reason to travel to that country.

    1. Re:Why would you go to North Korea intentionally? by lazarus · · Score: 1

      I'm not sure why we don't airdrop one million InReach sat communicators on the country and wait for the revolution to start. It seems like it would be way cheaper than aircraft carriers and wargames.

      --
      I am not interested in articles about life extension advancements.
    2. Re:Why would you go to North Korea intentionally? by BronsCon · · Score: 1

      Because that would be much less fun for those who run the show.

      --
      APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
    3. Re: Why would you go to North Korea intentionally? by houghi · · Score: 1

      Curiosity. To me ot is saner than wanting to stand on the highest mountain in the world.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    4. Re:Why would you go to North Korea intentionally? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Curiosity? For all the bad things you hear about the country it doesn't seem to be the worst for tourists, I hear more bad things about Mexico. For as much as they hate the US they have released many of our prisoners. For us its not the safest but other foreign countries have tourists too, someone from China or Europe traveling there probably doesn't have the same concerns as someone from the US.

    5. Re:Why would you go to North Korea intentionally? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Watching the religious procedures and architecture around the dear, departed Leader would be worth the trip, apparently. Also, the coordinated dance performances never let one down.

    6. Re:Why would you go to North Korea intentionally? by IWantMoreSpamPlease · · Score: 2

      Here is my thought to peacefully topple NK.
      Line up, on the border, elbow to elbow, huge tables of fresh food, and grills cooking all manner of food (steak, ribs, BBQ, you name it.)
      Then run giant fans blowing the food smell to the North Korean side.
      Put up monster sized banners saying "free, all you can eat, come one, come all"

      NK would fall within a day. No shots fired.

      --
      So rise up, all ye lost ones, as one, we'll claw the clouds.
    7. Re:Why would you go to North Korea intentionally? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My understanding is that some people think it is a dystopian theme park, kind of like a Hunger Games version of Disney World. Of course, it's not a theme park, the human misery is very real, and these immoral twits have no problems funding the regime. Me, I can't imagine it, there's a whole world of diverse places and cultures out there I can see without explicitly funding concentration camps.

    8. Re: Why would you go to North Korea intentionally? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's really selfish to help fund their human experiments and nuclear weapons because you want to satisfy some tiny subset of your curiosity.

    9. Re:Why would you go to North Korea intentionally? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It probably won't topple North Korea, but that technique appears to have had some limited success. South Koreans regularly send balloons of choco pies over the border, since that particular snack was banned in NK as a symbol of capitalism. From what I've read, it may have contributed to at least one guard defecting to the South, though he had to mostly dodge a hail of gunfire to do it. When he woke up in the hospital after surviving being shot five times, he asked for a choco pie, so the manufacturer sent him 100 boxes of them as a welcoming present.

    10. Re: Why would you go to North Korea intentionally? by SimonInOz · · Score: 1

      We seem to have concentrated our world societies into a very small band, based on moderated capitalism with varying degrees of democracy.
      We all know that mono cultures are risky, subject to single points of attack.
      So itâ(TM)s worth looking at alternatives. And there are not many in the world. North Korea is definitely different. Not nice perhaps, but definitely different.

      It is foolish to believe the systems we use are the only ones possible, or even workable, not to say arrogant.

      --
      "Cats like plain crisps"
    11. Re:Why would you go to North Korea intentionally? by magarity · · Score: 1

      I really cannot fathom any sane reason to travel to that country.

      The world is (supposed to be) a slightly better place every time a news reporter travels somewhere to get a story. At least in theory.

    12. Re:Why would you go to North Korea intentionally? by geekymachoman · · Score: 1

      > They could drop the word Wi-Fi from that sentence and it would still be true. I really cannot fathom any sane reason to travel to that country.

      Money of course. Journalists, photographers, and other people that make money going into dangerous areas to show us how it looks like and what's going on there.

      Not many people go to NK, so great opportunity to make money. And before you say, oh but you can do something less dangerous, well .. It's not easy to make money.. it's easy to be a wage slave like most of us commoners are, but those two are not the same.

    13. Re: Why would you go to North Korea intentionally? by houghi · · Score: 1

      Yes it is. Now what?

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
  10. I'd sooner bareback a $20 whore with the flu by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Airport wifi is unsafe under the best of circumstances in 1st-world countries that aren't threatening other countries with nuclear warheads, why the actual fuck would anyone be so fucking stupid as to even have a wifi-enabled device turned on in a hostile shithole like North Korea to start with? Do you want your computer or smartphone to get pwned by state-sponsored NK hackers? Hell, I don't think I'd even take any sort of computing device with me if I was forced to visit NK let alone take that chance.

    1. Re: I'd sooner bareback a $20 whore with the flu by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You want to bareback your mom? Ew

  11. How do you know? by SuperKendall · · Score: 2

    A honeypot doesn't work if you can't log in.

    All a honeypot REALLY requires is that you try to connect, then it blows out the TCP connection stack and downloads whatever it likes onto your device. Why even pretend a login is working when it's done everything it needs to do? Do you seriously doubt there are a ton of cheap Android phones you could easily root this way, probably even older iOS versions?

    The point of the honeypot is that it draws targets in that are then infected in some way, so this easily qualifies...

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:How do you know? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      then it blows out the TCP connection stack and downloads whatever it likes

      What does it mean to "blow out" a TCP connection?

      Do you seriously doubt there are a ton of cheap Android phones you could easily root this way

      I have no idea what you mean by "this way", but I also don't see what "cheap" has to do with it. They are running the same networking software on the same core hardware (ARM) as more expensive Android phones.

    2. Re:How do you know? by Hal_Porter · · Score: 1

      Honeypot just means you spy on the data. It's not going to "blows out the TCP connection stack and downloads whatever it likes onto your device".

      And actually a honeypot would be very easy to set up. Make sure people have to log in with a local phone number like the Chinese do, and then you can work back from an IP to a phone number. If you force all mobile providers to get an ID you can track that back to a person.

      So now you've got a system where you can see people do on the internet. For maximum Orwellianness I'd allow access to sites that are normally blocked and just see who tries to visit them.

      Hell why not man in the middle SSL sites so facebook.com goes to facebook.nk. Facebook.nk would log times, IP, text, basically everything.

      Most devices will complain about the certificate not matching, but then most people will probably click to connect anyway. Of course a competent government would send an national security letter that forces facebook to sign the MITM site, in which case browsers will connect without complaining.

      The downside to MITM'ing sites of course is that someone will eventually notice. Then again I bet if the NSA does this sort of thing the MITM site is probably colocated with an indistinguishable from the servers it is MITMing.

      UNLIMITED POWER!

      However if you're China or North Korea hopefully things are not set up so you can force a local company to issue a certificate that lets you MITM a US site.

      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
    3. Re:How do you know? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "upload". And what is your paranoid Space Nutter brain talking about here?

    4. Re:How do you know? by SuperKendall · · Score: 2, Informative

      What does it mean to "blow out" a TCP connection?

      As part of the negotiation setting up a WiFi connection there is a lot of back and forth, with a lot of opportunity to attack the code around this process. I don't know why a non-programmer would be on Slashdot, but blowing out a connection STACK means overflowing buffers or other similar attacks that would allow the device pretending to be a wiFi node to inject running code on the device that tries to connect. Look at the various types of datagrams here which you can mangle in various ways to try and attack a system.

      I also don't see what "cheap" has to do with it.

      They are less likely to be supported and updated with security patches.

      They are running the same networking software on the same core hardware (ARM) as more expensive Android phones.

      Um, no. They are generally running OLDER versions with known vulnerabilities, and over time will be even more vulnerable as more exploits are discovered and the devices remain un-pacthed because they are, well cheap and no-one cares. This is pretty basic stuff dude.

      Don't have time to give you a whole computer security course so I'll let you have the last response. But you really should do more research before you post.

      --
      "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    5. Re:How do you know? by BronsCon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I don't know why a non-programmer would be on Slashdot

      Because it's "News for Nerds", not "Peniswaving for Programmers". I remember when ours (programming) used to be an open and welcoming community. You are what is wrong with it today.

      --
      APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
    6. Re: How do you know? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      . I don't know why a non-programmer would be on Slashdot.

      You sound like a cunt.

    7. Re:How do you know? by khandom08 · · Score: 1

      Well done sir!

    8. Re:How do you know? by Shoten · · Score: 2

      Honeypot just means you spy on the data. It's not going to "blows out the TCP connection stack and downloads whatever it likes onto your device".

      And actually a honeypot would be very easy to set up. Make sure people have to log in with a local phone number like the Chinese do, and then you can work back from an IP to a phone number. If you force all mobile providers to get an ID you can track that back to a person.

      So now you've got a system where you can see people do on the internet. For maximum Orwellianness I'd allow access to sites that are normally blocked and just see who tries to visit them.

      Hell why not man in the middle SSL sites so facebook.com goes to facebook.nk. Facebook.nk would log times, IP, text, basically everything.

      Most devices will complain about the certificate not matching, but then most people will probably click to connect anyway. Of course a competent government would send an national security letter that forces facebook to sign the MITM site, in which case browsers will connect without complaining.

      The downside to MITM'ing sites of course is that someone will eventually notice. Then again I bet if the NSA does this sort of thing the MITM site is probably colocated with an indistinguishable from the servers it is MITMing.

      UNLIMITED POWER!

      However if you're China or North Korea hopefully things are not set up so you can force a local company to issue a certificate that lets you MITM a US site.

      While the poster (the one who talks about "blowing out the TCP connection stack," whatever the fuck that means) has the social skills of a rabid ferret, a honeypot can do pretty much what you want it to do; in that respect, he/she does have a good point. And a vulnerability exists which would operate in this fashion as well There was a nasty vulnerability (Broadpwn) in Broadcomm mobile SoCs that can be exploited in exactly this way (via a hostile WiFi AP) without even successfully connecting to a network. It was patched earlier this year...but if you're on an Android phone that isn't particularly new, you are likely vulnerable due to the OS fragmentation/support issue on that platform. And that, of course, ignores other forms of information harvesting (like recording SSID advertisements), or the possibility that they're maybe trying to MiTM everything but haven't gotten their kit working right yet.

      Normally I would chalk fears like this up to paranoia...but this is the lounge for international travelers in North Korea's only international airport. I mean, honestly...if I could think of a single place that's most likely a site where travelers would be attacked, this is it. It's practically a line out of a comedy, it's so over-the-top as a description of a risky situation. Can we really say that North Korea...NORTH KOREA...has set up a WiFi network specifically for visiting foreigners just out of the goodness of their heart?

      --

      For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
    9. Re:How do you know? by Hal_Porter · · Score: 2

      While the poster (the one who talks about "blowing out the TCP connection stack," whatever the fuck that means) has the social skills of a rabid ferret,

      Lulz

      Normally I would chalk fears like this up to paranoia...but this is the lounge for international travelers in North Korea's only international airport. I mean, honestly...if I could think of a single place that's most likely a site where travelers would be attacked, this is it. It's practically a line out of a comedy, it's so over-the-top as a description of a risky situation. Can we really say that North Korea...NORTH KOREA...has set up a WiFi network specifically for visiting foreigners just out of the goodness of their heart?

      Honestly when it comes to hoovering up data on an industrial scale, you can't really beat the US. I noticed my Samsung Galaxy S5 which was ancient started getting frequent 'security updates' when I was in NYC. Maybe I'm paranoid but I always assumed the NSA had sent national security letters to Google, Samsung, the carriers, etc to make sure their latest SmurfKit was running on it.

      http://www.zdnet.com/article/m...

      The S5 started to run a lot slower and hotter and I ended up buying a LG V20 rather than trying a firmware reset and a new battery. So those damn smurfs finally caused my elderly phone to die. Still, it's actually kind of endearing to be honest. The US and UK working together on cutting edge SIGINT, Bletchley Park style, in a way that some commie shithole like NK or even China can only dream of.

      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
    10. Re: How do you know? by Type44Q · · Score: 3, Funny

      What does it mean to "blow out" a TCP connection

      Zeroes and ones all over the fucking place; it's a hell of a mess. Clearly you're not a network engineer...

    11. Re:How do you know? by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

      Well said.

      --
      It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
    12. Re:How do you know? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It might help to talk out of your mouth instead of your asshole. I realise that with basic programming skills you might think you know what stacks are, and that they can be made to overflow, but it is clear that you don't know what a TCP/IP stack is, and what the actual known vulnerabilities in the Linux TCP/IP stack are between the initial release of Android and today and what is actually possible with those vulnerabilities without making a successful WiFi association.

    13. Re:How do you know? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes!!!

  12. Ha har har har, most wifi unfriendly? by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    Ever been on a german airport?
    If it has free wifi, you can access the airport news, flights and landings, and the weather, that's it.
    For 'internet' you either pay $5 for an hour or two or $20 for a day.

    Regarding internet and WiFi Germany is the most backyard country I ever experienced, but well, resident customers have 20Mbit and up connections ... not sure how gould that is when my cellular connection in Denmark or Thailand *feels* faster.

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    1. Re:Ha har har har, most wifi unfriendly? by OneHundredAndTen · · Score: 1

      Bypassing all that is trivial with DNS tunneling apps, of which there are many for Android. You will not be able to stream movies, but you will sure be able to read email, news, and do basic netsurfing. At no cost.

    2. Re:Ha har har har, most wifi unfriendly? by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      Beijing airport gives free WiFi... but you need a Chinese mobile phone number to get the authorisation code that will let you log in.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    3. Re:Ha har har har, most wifi unfriendly? by PPH · · Score: 1

      Bypassing all that is trivial with DNS tunneling apps

      Maybe. My local coffee shop has a 1 hour free WiFi service. Just go to the service 'logon' page and acknowledge the usage rules. But you can't get around the router, even if you have an IP address. It routes traffic based on your MAC address and won't let traffic through without a visit to the 'I Agree' button. Or after your 1 hour session has expired.

      I have observed numerous users pound on keys and swear at the service. One day, the shop owner asked me to put together a set of instructions that she could give to the other customers. It was a simple matter of telling people to open a browser and visit a non secure HTTP URL. The redirect wasn't working when they opened a secure site initially (like a home page of Google, Slashdot, etc.). Easy fix, but not something that was obvious to non technical savvy people even in the home town of Microsoft.

      I'd venture a guess that some default security setting was probably blocking the Pyongyang airport login site. And it might be something that you'd think twice about switching off, as that would result in your device being infected by spyware. But I'd guess that even turning a phone on in North Korea would get it hosed. So you made plans to use a disposable one on your trip. And send nothing more suspicious than a "Hi Mom. I'm here" message while in that country.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    4. Re:Ha har har har, most wifi unfriendly? by ledow · · Score: 1

      You seem overly confident that they are just intercepting unencrypted DNS queries to replace them with an internal IP, rather than... well... just blocking anything to anything other than the internal IPs.

      I don't know what shit networks you've been on, but on anything I've ever used with public-facing Wifi, DNS tricks will do nothing like you suggest.

      Literally, you get firewalled down to the internal IP address ranges and redirected to them constantly, until you pay/sign up/log in, when you then have Internet access.

      If you're being portalled, but can access any IP outside the portal's IP range, then they're doing something drastically wrong that just about every Wifi manufacturer does right without even bothering to try (e.g. everything from home router's guest networks, those "free Wifi for other customers of the same network" deals, public Wifi in cafes, shops, schools, landmarks, etc.)

  13. Nope. NOPE NOPE NOPE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Anything you do on that WiFi network will be used against you. But then again, if you're in NK, you already have a death wish.

  14. Reading the article by JustNiz · · Score: 2

    I feel incredibly sorry for the poor North Korean woman who was staffing the Internet booth. I'm sure in the context of North Korea that's probably a prestigious job and she was clearly not in a position to do anything to solve the actual technical problem (which is probably to just bypass a ridiculously over-anal spying firewall).

    I can only imagine what the Nork government are doing to her and 3 generations of her family right now because they interpret the incident to be that she caused a westerner.to see that North Korean infrastructure is anything less than perfect.

    1. Re:Reading the article by PPH · · Score: 1

      I can only imagine what the Nork government are doing to her and 3 generations of her family right now because they interpret the incident to be that she caused a westerner.to see that North Korean infrastructure is anything less than perfect.

      And why can't we do that to Comcast?

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    2. Re:Reading the article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I bet she is getting raped by a dozen American men right now. Because they are pure evil.

    3. Re:Reading the article by Zontar_Thing_From_Ve · · Score: 2

      I can only imagine what the Nork government are doing to her and 3 generations of her family right now because they interpret the incident to be that she caused a westerner.to see that North Korean infrastructure is anything less than perfect.

      I think without meaning to, you've actually hit on how Stalinist dictatorial regimes stay in power. Probably this specific incident isn't a big deal and nothing happens to anybody. But that is kind of how these regimes survive. You never really know what exactly is going to set off the top guy or somebody near him. People think that if they act loyally that they never have to worry about someone coming after them, but that's not true at all. Your neighbor can have a grudge against you and report you as a spy and the people in charge may find it easier to just kill you and not have to worry about you than to investigate the charge. You never know who might be a government spy, so you can't plan revolution with anybody because they might be a spy or they might simply turn you in to try to elevate themselves. Graveyards are filled with loyal subjects to Stalinist regimes who thought "They'll never come after me because I'm loyal". So while you're probably not really correct here, the unpredictability of who they will come after and when is how they never get overthrown.

  15. Be careful, Kim Jung Un by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

    Ferdinand Marcos learned the hard way - once you start giving your vassals (even controlled) access to some of the accoutrements of the modern world in an attempt to keep them mollified, what generally happens is they eventually figure out just how awful their life is compared to people who live elsewhere. And it doesn't end well for you.

    --
    #DeleteChrome
    1. Re:Be careful, Kim Jung Un by hey! · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Killing Benigno Aquino is what toppled Marcos' regime. I actually met Aquino when he was an MIT fellow. My first reaction when I heard he was going back was "Marcos will have him killed." Doing it before Aquino even got off the tarmac was a mistake; he should have met with an "accident". But then that was only the culmination of a whole train of mistakes, which started by allowing a young, charismatic politician to become the focus of opposition hopes.

      So your analogy doesn't really work. The lesson for a tyrant is don't let your opponents become publicly notable. Keep people you can't trust inside the country where you can watch them and restrict them effectively. If they do manage leave the country, don't let them back in, or even adopt the pretense that they're free to return. Kill them while they are *languishing* in exile with no prospect of return. These are all lessons the DPRK has followed assiduously.

      Practice makes perfect applies to tyranny as much as anything else, you just can't be half-hearted or half-assed about it.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  16. One Day... by sycodon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    North Korea will fall. Either by violence from outside or from within.

    When the dust settles, the world will learn of the atrocities they suspect now, but are really unwilling to admit to.

    At that time, the entire world will be ashamed to have let the Cancer that is North Korea live for so long.

    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    1. Re:One Day... by smooth+wombat · · Score: 0

      Unwilling to admit? You haven't been looking around, have you?

      I regularly see articles about what is happening in NK, and not just from U.S. sources.

      Then there are the pictures which have been smuggled out showing what life is really like out in the country where people resort to eating grass because there's so little food.

      Don't forget the stories from people who have escaped and have talked about the executions, the imprisonments, and all the other penalties people are being subjected to.

      As to your fascism quote, we are closer now to that ideology than ever before.

      --
      We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
    2. Re:One Day... by sycodon · · Score: 1

      If we fully admitted to it, then we would do something about it.

      Unfortunately "we" includes China and Russia.

      As for Fascism, only one side is assaulting the other side for having the temerity to want to listen to a speaker.

      --
      When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    3. Re: One Day... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As a US citizen, I am tired of being the world police.

    4. Re:One Day... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...

      As to your fascism quote, we are closer now to that ideology than ever before.

      Yep, those Republicans that now control the government are big on shouting down and intimidating speakers who dare to speak ideas they don't agree with.

      Oh, wait.

      Damn, it seems the US may have actually moved a bit farther AWAY from Fascism over the past 13 months or so...

    5. Re: One Day... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your libturd sources are worth shit.
      North Koreans are happy people in their own world. Because unhappy people would have little motivation to become essentially a world nuclear power.
      And because your libturd sources are brainwashing you with propaganda to keep you in check I'd say that it is you who is living in a shitty place.

    6. Re:One Day... by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1

      Entire world? Huh? How's it our problem? We have no culpability whatsoever. If any nation can be blamed it is China, for propping them up for so long. I'm really at a loss to understand how what happens in North Korea is anyone's fault but North Korea's.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    7. Re:One Day... by Altrag · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Some day, yes. It won't be from within any time soon though. The military is way too strong and the populace too weak and well-controlled to really get anything going. Of course if and when it does get going, it would by necessity have to be a surprise to everyone not involved so I suppose its possibly that they've been planning something for 20 years that they'll spring on the DPRK any day now.

      Outside violence would likely have to be initiated by DPRK themselves though. China still supports them and nobody else is going to initiate action against them while China's hovering in the background. As long as North Korea just continues testing and threatening with their nukes rather than actually using them, its unlikely even the US will try to stop them.

      are really unwilling to admit to.

      Nobody's unwilling to admit it. They're just unsure what to do about it. Attacking NK has a good chance of pissing off China, and nobody really wants a war with China at this point. If China themselves decide to annex NK then there might be something doing, but the rest of the world won't have much involvement.

      And even if China does take action, we're likely to end up with another, possibly even more tense standoff as there's a chance they'd want the entire Korean peninsula rather than just half of it.

      But for fun lets say China just steps out all together and the US is free to attack NK themselves. What then? Do we try to merge it with South Korea? Do we annex it ourselves and try to hold it as a colony? Attempt to set up a puppet government which has worked oh-so-well in South America and the Middle East when we've tried it before. Or do we just destroy everything and then walk away and leave them to their own devices? Merging with SK sounds like the best option but that's a lot of hatred built up over the last few decades so that wouldn't be easy by any means (never mind the purely practical aspect of figuring out how to de-mine the neutral zone.) And none of the other options sound particularly good either.

      ashamed to have let the Cancer that is North Korea live for so long.

      North Korea is bad but its not the worst we've seen, or ignored. We've got an ongoing genocide in Myanmar right now. It was only a couple of years ago that Syria was using chemical weapons against its own citizens. Rwanda wasn't all that long ago and the list goes on. Sure we took a pot shot at Syria, more because Trump wanted try blowing something up after he came into office than because it actually accomplished anything, but otherwise we've pretty much left all of those things (and many others) to play themselves out.

      Malnutrition and hard work, no matter how repressive, is still better than being flat out slaughtered in most peoples' opinions.. especially when you're comparing a slow, painful death like the sarin gas attacks in Syria.

    8. Re:One Day... by DigiShaman · · Score: 1

      You assume there will be a world left once thermonuclear WW3 commences. North Korea is like that scrappy little bitch that starts enough trouble for the big boys to jump in - China, Russia, US, Japan, India, Pakistan, and ME at large.

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
    9. Re:One Day... by nasch · · Score: 2

      If we fully admitted to it, then we would do something about it.

      Sounds like a No True Scotsman fallacy. We (depending on who is included in "we") fully admitted the genocide in Rwanda was happening, but didn't do much of anything about it.

    10. Re: One Day... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As a citizen of the world, I don't want america to be the world police.

    11. Re:One Day... by dwpro · · Score: 1

      It's a lot more than forced labor (though the labor camps are exceedingly horrid). The un-freedom is palpable in so many facets of NK society, from the surveillance state to the ubiquitous propaganda. Punishments for lack of fealty can extend to your entire family out to 3rd cousins. For those who value freedom slaughter might be preferable.

      --
      Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon. -- Susan Ertz
    12. Re:One Day... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Could very well be your own country you're talking about.

    13. Re:One Day... by Altrag · · Score: 1

      People who've never known freedom definitely do not value it as much as you or I, and the will to survive is an exceptionally strong driving factor in human psychology.

    14. Re:One Day... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Some day, yes. It won't be from within any time soon though. The military is way too strong and the populace too weak and well-controlled to really get anything going.

      That sounds like a description of the USSR in the mid eighties...

    15. Re:One Day... by Altrag · · Score: 1

      Only vaguely.. The USSR was a large conglomerate of many different peoples and ideas spread across an enormously vast area of geography, bordered on two sides by foreign powers, only one of which (China) was especially friendly throughout the USSR's existence.

      North Korea on the other hand has only one demographic (the Korean people,) a small land area to patrol, and only one fairly short unfriendly border which is heavily mined and essentially impenetrable (by spies or whatever.)

      Also, the USSR was much more open to the west even during the cold war than North Korea is -- another avenue for spies and other foreign agents to get in.

      And even then, the USSR's collapse was mainly top-down rather than bottom-up. I'm sure there was some riots and whatnot here and there (there always is..) but it mostly came about through decades of economic mismanagement and then Gorbachev's attempts to unfuck things.

      And then everyone just let it play out after the collapse and its worked out oh-so-well for Russia so far. A power vacuum followed by mafia control and now a dictator. The other former USSR states are a pretty hit-and-miss bunch as well (some are actually doing OK -- mostly those that had the weakest ties to the union previously.. I'm somehow doubt that's entirely coincidental..)

  17. Great news! by fredrated · · Score: 1

    I will be right there!

  18. I love North Korea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    9-11 was a Jew job

  19. Not a lot of worse places by sjbe · · Score: 1

    Curiosity? For all the bad things you hear about the country it doesn't seem to be the worst for tourists, I hear more bad things about Mexico.

    That's because A) there is more news about Mexico and some of it is bound to be bad, B) you obviously haven't been to Mexico and C) people who have a great experience in Mexico (most of them) don't complain about it. I've worked in Mexico and spent quite a lot of time there. Mexico is great for the most part. Honestly the US is roughly just as dangerous to visit as Mexico and neither place is really especially dangerous. There is no reason to be afraid of visiting either country as a general proposition.

    There are lots of things I'm curious about but I don't do the ones that carry a non trivial chance of me ending up in a labor camp. If you want to stick your head in the lions mouth knock yourself out but personally I'll just visit pleasant places. There are worse places to go (like Syria) but not a lot of them.

    1. Re:Not a lot of worse places by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is roughly a zero chance of getting mugged in DPRK. Yes, you can go to prison for things. But so long as you play the part of good tourist, you are much safer in DPRK than Mexico (or the US).

  20. Would Not Trust NORK WiFi! by kenwd0elq · · Score: 1

    Of all the places in the world where you should NOT trust an open WiFi hot spot, North Korea would be #1 on any list.

    And WTF was the author doing in North Korea?

  21. turning a phone on in North Korea = high roaming by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    turning a phone on in North Korea = high roaming fees.

  22. Nice try, NSA! by LordHighExecutioner · · Score: 1

    disguising your equipment in such a unusual place, to monitor occidental citizen who are traveling to and from Pyongyang is a masterpiece indeed!

  23. Why bother? by DrXym · · Score: 1

    At best you get a shitty censored dial up quality connection. At worst the Norks are packet sniffing everything coming from every single device that connects and helping themselves to anything of value that they can exploit while you sit there.

  24. fuckwit detected! by fireylord · · Score: 1

    Your use of the acronym SJW makes me want to say GO FUCK YOURSELF even though I wholeheartedly agree with the rest of your comment

  25. Re: turning a phone on in North Korea = high roami by PPH · · Score: 1

    high roaming fees

    They can go ahead and name me as a sponsor of their next missile test.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  26. LOW HANGING FRUIT ALERT by slashdotiscompromisd · · Score: 1

    hahahhaha north korea has no one to defend it this time, it challenges my master and therefore challenges me for submitting to him, its time to pick up some easy self esteem points with a misplaced dominance display

    OMFG those fucking retards cant even do wifi wtf i can do wifi WHAT THE FCUK omfg lol we are so much better i am so glad i have an example of how bad my life would be if i didn't believe every single fucking thing the media fed me

    --
    My karma was manually wiped by site staff https://slashdot.org/~slshdtisctrldbysjws 18 mod up, 10 mod down = bad karma
  27. Airdropped wireless communicators by Paul+Fernhout · · Score: 1

    I suggested something like that too in 2000 about mesh-networked communicators: https://www.dougengelbart.org/...
    "Consider millions of these devices airdropped into Iraq and Yugoslavia -- instead of more expensive cruise missiles! Anybody got $1 billion to spend on ensuring democracy with a true defense against tyranny in those places? (This is probably what the U.S. military's spends on gas/oil for a month cruising the area...) "

    Although, as with Germans occupiers during WWII making it illegal to own radios in occupied lands, possibly local security forces could criminalize these devices (e.g. China now scanning people's mobile phones for forbidden software) -- so I'm not sure what the ultimate result would be. Probably the outcome would depend on a lot of factors.

    --
    A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
  28. The WiFi is only for by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    their airports' advanced security system

  29. Safer in DPRK? Not likely by sjbe · · Score: 1

    There is roughly a zero chance of getting mugged in DPRK. Yes, you can go to prison for things.

    Like pointing out that their Dear Leader is an asshat. Or looking at anything your handler doesn't approve of. Or photographing anything unapproved. Or talking with the locals without permission.

    But so long as you play the part of good tourist, you are much safer in DPRK than Mexico (or the US).

    Bullshit. I guarantee I'm safer in the US or Mexico. It's not even a close contest.

  30. Journalists by sjbe · · Score: 1

    The world is (supposed to be) a slightly better place every time a news reporter travels somewhere to get a story. At least in theory.

    Except they pretty much don't get any stories out of North Korea. Normally I'd agree with you but the hermit kingdom is locked down so tight that the notion of journalists uncovering something big by going there is a fantasy.