behind North Koreas digital underground
the in's and out's of information & technology in the hermit kingdom
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North Koreans are learning more about the outside world now than they have since the foundation of their country. It seems the information environment is opening and now the government is facing a serious challenge in maintaining a complete monopoly.
North Korea has a complete lack of independent domestic media with extreme legal restrictions against accessing foreign media and harsh punishments against citizens who violate this. Since late 90’s access to illegal outside media has grown, however it is still very limited. Many citizens inside and outside the borders are developing new ways of accessing information while avoiding the ever present risk of detection and punishment.
IT has the force to challenge the Regime, pushing for either reform or collapse. However, North Korea has an ancient system in place for preventing political change. These foundations run deep and to shake them you would need support from all levels of the rigid caste system. While North Korea is keeping it’s iron curtain drawn tight, two extremely technologically developed countries, China and South Korea, enclose it. Information has never been so intangible, so how will the Regime keep it out?
North Koreans are learning more about the outside world now than they have since the foundation of their country. It seems the information environment is opening and now the government is facing a serious challenge in maintaining a complete monopoly.
"What she craved was the freedom to wear flared jeans and jewellery... She nurtured such dreams in her bedroom, watching illegal South Korean and American TV dramas, smuggled in from China and shared among her friends on memory sticks which they plugged into black-market computers." Jeon Geum Ju
"The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is the very archetype of a “closed society.” It ranks dead last—196th out of 196 countries—in Freedom House’s Freedom of the Press index. Unlike the citizens of, say, Tunisia or Egypt, to name two countries whose populations recently tapped the power of social media to help upend the existing political order, few North Koreans have access to Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube. In fact, except for a tiny elite, the DPRK’s 25 million inhabitants are not connected to the Internet. Televisions are set to receive only government stations. International radio signals are routinely jammed, and electricity is unreliable. Freestanding radios are illegal. But every North Korean household and business is outfitted with a government-controlled radio hardwired to a central station. The speaker comes with a volume control, but no off switch. In a new media age awash in universally shared information—an age of planet-wide instant messaging and texted manifestos—the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea remains a stubborn holdout, a regime almost totally in control of its national narrative." Robert S. Boynton
"Until recently, the outside world has known little about North Korean society. But during the past decade information has flowed—albeit illegally—both into and out of North Korea... “North Koreans can get more outside information than ever before and they are less fearful of sharing that information... It is only when people can tell the difference between truth and lies that their curiosity is stimulated” Curiosity may be what this obsessively secret regime most has to fear." The Economist