The i-Curtain
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A glimpse at the Internet in North Korea
orth Korea is defined by its secrecy. Since the country’s birth in 1948 following the end of World War II, North Korea has remained one of the only countries to be under nominally communist rule. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea at a glance The eternal president of North Korea, the late Kim Il-sung, was responsible for shaping North Korea Photo released by Korean Central News Agency Sunday, May 8, into the country that it is today. When the Korean 2011, the late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, visits the NamWar ended in 1953 Kim Il-sung developed and intro- hung youth chemical complex in Anju, North Korea. duced his own personal philosophy of self-reliance Internet and Censorship called Juche. This philosophy has three core beliefs that the North Korean state strives to abide by: North Korea has a high degress of censorship. All me-
dia outlets are heavily examined and owned by the government. Since 2007, North Korea has routinely come second to last in the World Press Freedom Index Rankings a anual study that is published by the This obsession of independence has led to the demise charity, Reporters Without Borders. 1. 2. 3.
Political Independence Economic self-sustenance Self-reliance in defense
the of North Korean state; widespread famine, dangerous nuclear ambitions and a ramshackle economy. In general, the Media is dedicated to churning out DPRK vs. The World
political propaganda that displays the Kim family in a positive light which promotes a personality around the dictating family.
North Korea conciders itself to have two main enemies: South Korea and the USA. This conflict remains North Korea is regarded as an internet black hole befrom the Korean War where the North and South Kocause internet access is illegal in the state. Only very reas were divided by the Korean Demilitarized zone. North Korea’s nuclear intentions often take centre stage in the media. 2013 has so far been a particularly turbulant in the form of rhetoric from North Korea threatening to take action against the USA and South Korea with their nuclear weaopns after more sanctions were placed upon the country by the UN. It seems that North Korea’s nuclear intentions are central to rataining their self-reliance in defence.
few government officials have access to the internet. It is believed that around 14% of the North Korean population have access to the internet; all of whom are government officals. The rest of the citizens only have access to the country’s own intranet, Kwangmyong. This is why the internet status in North Korea can be described as the ‘i-curtain’; a mostly inpenitrable curtain that strictly monitors and restricts what is coming in and out of the state, much like the Iron Curtain during the Cold War.
North Korea’s reluctance to participate in the international community also prevented aid from sucessfully reaching its starving citizens during the famine However, one may be surprised to how ‘much’ internet in rhe 1990s which killed up to 3.5 million people. there actually is in Korea. The following pages look at Even today, North Korea is still struggling with a the major events in North Korea’s internet history. lack of food supplies.
North Korea & The Internet
A timeline capturing the most significant events that relate to the internet in North Korea
1999 2000
2001
Opening of the first commercial website Korea Info Bank (dprkorea.com), 10th Oct 1999.
Kwangmyong (The Intranet) Apparently, Kim Jong Il believed that there were three types of fool in the 21st Century: smokers, the tone-deaf and the computer illiterate. So, to enable North Koreans to become computer literate, whilst maintaining strict censorship controls, Kwangmyong was launched. Kwangmyong, meaning ‘bright’ in English is North Korea’s very own intranet. The network was launched in 2000 and it enabled North Koreans to access email, new groups and search engines. The whole system is internal, meaning that those using the network can only access specific sites created by the government, and can only email those within the intranet. The primary focus of Kwangmyong is education. The majority of the network consists of scholarly scientific work and a heavily censored online library. North Koreans are able to purchase specially customized computers, which are only able to connect to the intranet. Buying computers in North Korea is exclusively for the rich. However, computers are available in libraries in the cities, and computer classes are now compulsorily for school pupils. North Korea’s own intranet is increasingly popular, however, it is a far cry from the internet freedom that many of us enjoy. Introduction of Email Email has been available in The Hermit Kingdom since October 8th 2001. The Chinese company Sili Bank was the first company to provide the service with dedicated servers in Pyongyang. Of course the service is heavily restricted and monitored by authorities, in general, North Koreans are forbidden to send emails to recipients abroad and mostly communicate though the specially designed Intranet.
2003
2004
.kp Opening a website using North Korea’s country code as the top level domain (Science and Technology Exhibit Hall, stic.ac.kp), Jul 13 2003 Kim Jong Il in 2010 on a field inspection. Kim Jong Il was a fan of technology and when he died he was buried with his favourite Mac laptop. PHOTO: KCNA
Connecting to the Outside World Establishment, with KCC Europe, of a global, satellite based wireless private telecommunication network that would connect North Korea to overseas search engines, Feb. 16, 2004.
2007
2009
Air Koryo Facebook page13th December 2009 North Korea’s state-owned airline, Air Koryo founded its Facebook page in 2009. Unlike most other North Korean state run internet pages, this page manages to avoid spouting DPRK propaganda and takes on a more commercial role. The page is fairly informative with plenty of updates and flight information. The numerous photos that have been uploaded are interesting. There are plenty of candid shots of happy Koreans on flights and also some suspiciously computer-generated looking photos of the airline’s ‘new aircrafts’. Although there are no negative comments on the page, you can however see where people have criticized DPRK on the Air Koryo page
Chollima Established on 31st December 2007, Chollima was a North Korean website which primarily offered news and information about North Korea’s economic policies and foreign trade. Interestingly it also contained what was believed to be North Korea’s first online shop which sold items such as machinery and building materials. The website, which started running in December 2007, was a joint venture between North Korea and an anonymous Chinese company. However in April 2010 the website ceased to exist and remains no longer in operation.
Marketing: A photo advertising what services Air Koryo has to offer. PHOTO: Air Koryo Facebook fan page
2010
North Korea YouTube: 14th July 2010 The official North Korean Youtube account is home to nearly 6000 video clips, which is impressive. All are in Korean and are a mixture of newsreports read by overly enthusiastic newsreaders, obscure cartoons, and people working in facA screenshot taken from a North Korean news broadcast that has been uploaded to North Korea’s Youtube account. Happy Korean tories. As with all the other North Korean social media women announcing various affairs in the country as well as anti-American propaganda seems to be the norm. accounts, the videos here paint a picture of a prosperous and industrious state.
North Korea Facbook: 10th August 2010 North Korea’s officail Facebook page appeared in August 2010 under the name ‘Uriminzok’. Like North Korea’s other online accounts this acts as propaganda for the country. There’s plenty of happy photos of Korean citizens as well as plenty of anti-American rhetoric. There are also many posts from Facebook users criticising the regime and making fun of their ‘dear leader’ Kim Jong-un.
A screenshot taken from North Korea’s Facebook page. The photo shows Koreans having fun at the beach in colourful dress. This is the ‘utopia’ that North Korea wants to display to the world.
North Korea on Twitter: 2010
2010
A screenshot from North Korea’s Twitter page. The tweets are in Korean, but the account cannot be viewed in either North or Sotuh Korea. Therefore, one must ask; who are the tweets for? The Korean population living outside of Korea?
Since August 2010 North Korea has been steadily tweeting propaganda from its official @ uriminzok account. The account, which tweets solely in Korean, lets its followers know of various daily activities carried out by the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as well as pumping out plenty of anti-American propaganda. The page was blocked in South Korea in August 2010, when South Korean officials accused the account of broadcasting ‘illegal information’. However, the existence of the account was not picked up by Western mainstream media until January 2013 when news sites reported that the @uriminzok account was following a 25 year old entrepreneur from Texas. The story gathered so much media attention because the @ uriminzok was only following three accounts in total: a seemingly communist Vietnamese account, a Pyongyang themed news feed and Jimmy Dushku’s (@JimmyDushku) account. Dushku says that he doesn’t know why the account it following him, but claims that since the story came to light earlier this year he has received death-threats from those who oppose the regime. For those who can’t read Korean the tweets are translated (poorly) into English by @uriminzok_eng.
Flikr: September 2010 Again, under the username ‘Urminzok’, North Korea shows its ‘favourable’ side to the rest of the world using photography. There are literally thousands of photos on this account ranging from candid military shots to Koreans visiting Aquariums to soliders firing guns. Although the account gives an interesting insight to the country, it must be taken with a pinch of salt. North Korea is displaying to the world the photos they want them to see. There’s no photos of prison camps or povertry stricken villages. Korean Central News Agency From October 2010 the Korean Central News agencey, the news organisation that is owned by the North Korean
Kim Jong Un working. PHOTO: North Korea’s Flikr page
2013
Google’s Eric Schmidt visits North Korea, Jan 2013 Eric Schmidt, a Google executive chairman visited North Korea in February 2013. The American was criticized greatly in the media due to the tense relations that the USA has with North Korea. Schmidt had described his trip to the state as a ‘private humanitarian mission’. It is believed that his main purpose for visiting the country was to show that North Korea’s decision to remain apart from the rest of the ‘increasingly connected’ world was likely to limit the country’s economic growth further. Upon the return of his trip Schmidt spoke about the Internet in North Korea on his Google+ account. He said that the technology in the country was ‘very limited’. It is unclear whether these talks will have any impact on the country and in particular its leader, Kim Jong Un, who seems to be more interested in developing its nuclear intentions rather than connecting to the rest of the world.
2013 and beyond It’s difficult to say what the future holds in terms of technology and the internet in North Korea. Connecting its citizens to the internet is clearly not a priority for the Hermit Kingdom. 2013 is becoming a year where North Korea is becoming increasingly more threatening with regards to the used of nuclear weapons. The threat of a nuclear strike against the USA has provoked the hactivist group Anonymous to start its own cyber war against North Korea. According to various sources and the group itself, Anonymous has hacked into various North Korean social media accounts. One of the accounts which as been hacked into is the North Korean Flickr account where various photos, including one portraying Kim Jong Un as a pig have been uploaded. There have also been other incidents where unknown sources have brought down the Internet in North Korea. Overall, it seems unlikely that North Korea will enjoy a technological revolution any time soon, at least whilst nuclear ambition and keeping the Kim regime in place remain the number one priorities.
Cyberwar: One of the photos which hactivist group Anonymus claims to have uploaded to North Korea’s Flikr page.
The i-curtain
Articles, Graphics, and Layout: Emma Cullen 2013