Martyn Williams
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Homepage: http://www.northkoreatech.org
Posts by Martyn Williams
Uriminzokkiri Twitter reportedly hacked
Jan 8th
The Twitter account of Uriminzokkiri, the China-based web site with close ties to Pyongyang, has apparently been compromised. (See the bottom of this post for updates.)
Four messages posted on Saturday morning are derogatory to leader Kim Jong-Il and Kim Jong-Un, his son and heir apparent.
Yonhap News translated one of the messages:
“Let’s create a new world by rooting out our people’s sworn enemy Kim Jong-il and his son Kim Jong-un!” — Yonhap News, Jan. 8, 2011
The messages are still visible at time of writing and are reproduced below.
The apparent hacking comes on Kim Jong-Un’s 28th birthday and will be an embarrassment More >
KP domains could be back online soon
Jan 4th
North Korea’s dot-kp domain space could be back on the Internet soon. Domain name servers responsible for dot-kp have been offline for several months as have a handful of websites that used them.
With no servers the entire dot-kp address space, which only amounted to a handful of sites, has been out of operation. On Monday the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), which coordinates the Internet’s top-level domains, updated the KP information to point to new servers.
Here’s more on the story, including some background about dot-kp’s mysterious disappearance:
- North Korea moves to bring KP top-level domain back online, Network World, Jan. 3, More >
KCNA launches video news
Jan 2nd
The Korean Central News Agency carried video news for the first time on its new home page on Jan. 1, 2011. Two video clips were posted as part of the daily news offering.
The first shows scenes from around Pyongyang, including families visiting the Mansudae Grand Monument, while the second includes more shots of the city and comments from a government official identified as Kim Pyong O, a department director in the Ministry of Light Industry, on the New Year editorial.
A close-up of the newspaper page clearly shows the date as Jan. 1. Of course, it’s possible to fake such a shot, More >
Joint editorial calls for expansion of CNC
Jan 1st
North Korea called for a significant effort to modernize and build up its light industry sector this year in a joint editorial published in newspapers on Saturday.
“Light industry is the major front in the general offensive of this year,” said an English-language translation of the editorial carried by KCNA. “To accelerate the development of light industry is a mature requirement and most pressing task for building the country into an economic giant.”
“We should make sure that this year, a year of light industry, the whole country seethes with efforts to give priority to and concentrate everything on the sector of More >
South seeks block on DPRK Internet propaganda
Dec 23rd
South Korea’s government is planning to further restrict its citizens from accessing, discussing or forwarding North Korean propaganda activity on social-networking services, such as Twitter.
The plans were outlined in the Justice Ministry’s plan for 2011, which was presented on Tuesday, although lacked specifics.
The South already blocks about 30 pro-North Korean websites although never had to worry about social media until Uriminzokkiri launched a Twitter feed earlier this year.
Here’s the full story at Network World.
The moves follows the sinking of the Cheonan and shelling of Yeonpyeong island and comes despite an already tightening grip on South Korean netizens.
According to a report More >
Rodong Sinmun on IT psychological warfare
Dec 16th
Rodong Sinmun, the DPRK’s national daily newspaper of the Workers’ Party of Korea, attacked the U.S. on Tuesday for “waging a vicious psychological warfare on the basis of modern science and technology.”
The article, an English synopsis of which was reported by KCNA, said the U.S. is using it to attack “anti-imperialist independent countries.”
It’s the first time in a while that psychological warfare has come up on KCNA, but the article is frustratingly lacking in specifics of the specific actions it is complaining about.
U.S. intelligence gathering bodies and their affiliated institutions are now busy widely using modern scientific and technological means More >
High-quality recordings of DPRK radio
Dec 14th
Mark Fahey in Australia wrote to let me know about a project he’s working on that involves the capture of hours of North Korean radio via satellite. The broadcasts of the Korean Central Broadcasting Station domestic service via Thaicom are much higher quality than anything that’s generally available online, including my recordings from shortwave. Here’s what he says:
I am currently capturing hundreds of hours of TV & radio programming from North Korea as part of an academic project I am involved in. Yesterday I spent time digitally capturing the central domestic radio service as broadcast on 819kHz in Pyongyang. I thought More >
Directory of North Korean Websites
Dec 12th
Over the last few years I’ve collected a lot of bookmarks for websites that are either related to the DPRK in one way or another. There doesn’t seem to be a decent list anywhere online, so I’ve put them all onto a page on this site.
The North Korean Website List doesn’t attempt to list every website with a relation to North Korea, but it does try to include the more interesting or official ones. It’s divided into three parts: sites actually in North Korea; major sites outside of the country; and other sites.
This is just version 1.0. I hope to keep More >
A closer look at the e-learning system
Dec 8th
The North Korean media have made some noise in the past few months about a new distance-education system. There have been several reports on KCNA about the system and in late November it featured on the evening KRT News.
I pulled some stills from the television report that show the system in use. In the screens shown, the lecturer can see up to nine video images of students taking the class and monitor their own image. The student appears to see two images: their own and that of the class. Another window shows slides and supporting documents.
The system works on computers More >
KCNA refreshes its website
Dec 4th
The Korean Central News Agency website that appears to be hosted from inside North Korea has been given a redesign. The new page has a fresher feel and makes much more use of pictures than the previous site, which was first discovered in early October.
Also new is the addition of Korean-language articles to the previously-available English and Spanish news.
The front page includes an image, the day’s headlines and links to seven category menus. I had problems with some of the links and the menus when accessed via Firefox, but they function with Internet Explorer.
It still has to be accessed via an More >
