Internet
FNK Radio attracts North Korean Internet audience
Jan 18th
Free North Korea Radio, one of the handful of independent broadcasters targeting North Korea, attracted a direct connection to its website from inside the DPRK on Wednesday morning.
The site said an incoming connection from North Korea was recorded between 9:30am and 10am on Wednesday morning. It included the following screenshot (see below) from its site showing a connection from what appears to be within the North Korean IP address range that’s recently been activated by Star JV.
Star’s IP addresses run from 175.45.176.0 to 175.45.179.255.
Free North Korea Radio, based in Seoul and run by defectors from the north, broadcasts programming critical of More >
South Korea steps up blocking of DPRK sites
Jan 14th
South Korea has begun blocking Naenara and several of its sub-sites. The move comes days after the site reactivated its dot-kp North Korean domain name and plugs a long-standing hole in South Korea’s cyber wall against North Korean online propaganda.
The blocking, first reported by Yonhap, results in South Korean Internet users being redirected to the National Police Agency’s warning site (pictured right.)
It has also taken out the Korea Sports Fund’s Faster Korea page, an out-of-date page for the Pyongyang International Trade Fair, and the sites of the Cholsan Patent and Trademark Agency and Koryo PAT Rainbow patent agency.
Naenara is More >
Dot-KP domain names are back
Jan 11th
North Korea’s Dot-KP domain name system returned to the Internet in the last few days. (See the bottom of this post for updates.)
Offline for months, the service has resumed via servers run by Star JV, the Internet joint venture formed by the North Korean government and Thailand’s Loxley Pacific. As reported previously, dot-kp was run by the KCC Europe operation in Germany but went offline in the third quarter of last year.
Two websites are already available via KP domain names. Both are hosted on the same web server. The first, Naenara, has been available for a few months via an More >
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 >
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 >
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 >
