Weapons of Mass Networking in North Korea

source: www.twitter.com

Social Networking in North Korea is sticky and behind the loop of many other countries around the world. North Korea has a government that tolerates censorship to the extreme.  In North Korea, all media outlets are strictly owned and controlled by the North Korean govenrment.  All news comes from the Korean Central News Agency.  Mass media is used as a weapon by the government in North Korea, as the much of the media released is in propoganda form, and promotes the personality cult of Kim II-Sung and Kim-Jong-iI.  Routinely, the media is used to make false claims to attack the western world, Christianity, The United States, Israel, Japan, and specifically South Korea.  

    Radio and television are preset to government run channels and set to recieve only govenement frequencies, with technology in place to prevent tampering.  It is a serious criminal offense to tamper with the sets, or to receive North Korean radio or television programs outside of North Korea.  Possessing a personal short wave radio is illegal, but confiscated radios are commnly resold by corrupt agents of the government.  

    In 2006 Reporters without Borders described North Korea as the world's internet blackhole, probably because internet usage in North Korea is illegal.  It is limited to few government officials who have connection through secretly rented Chinese connections.

  Until last year, North Korea was hardly on the social netwroking scene.  North Korea's government run website Uriminzokkiri opened a twitter account and YouTube channel in July, 2010.  Though not accesable by it's own people, North Korea uses the networking sites to blast the US and South Korea,  among many other countries, religions, and ideas.  The South Korean government blocked all access to the youtube channel and twitter account after only one week of activity.  

    Suspiciously, hours after the sites were blocked by the South Korean government, a North Korean facebook page was created under the name uriminzokkiri, which directly translates to on our own as a nation.  The facebook page was soon blocked by the South Korean government, so as not to have it's people flooded with anti South Korea and US propaganda.

    For all of the good that social networking can do-bringing people together with similar ideas, making the sharing of ideas extremely easy and accessasable for all, and doing it all peacefully and at the will of the common person, it is very sad that North Korea's government would chose to represent themselves in such a negative and bully-like manner.

sources:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/38753870/North_Korea_Takes_to_Social_Networking
http://science.discovery.com/stories/week/north-korea-social-networking.html
http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2010/s2996087.htm