How Technology Gets the News Out of North Korea 173
itwbennett writes "Kim Dong-cheol is a North Korean with 'a double life,' writes the IDG News Service's Martyn Williams in a story on ITworld. 'In addition to his job as a driver for a company, Kim also works as a clandestine reporter for AsiaPress, a Japanese news agency that's taken advantage of the digital electronics revolution to get reports from inside North Korea,' says Williams. 'When we started training journalists in 2003 or 2004, getting cameras into North Korea was a real problem,' said Jiro Ishimaru, chief editor of the news agency, at a Tokyo news conference on Monday. 'Nowadays, within North Korea you are able to have your pick of Sony, Panasonic or Samsung cameras.' The images they're capturing are 'often startling,' and it 'documents a side of the country the government doesn't want the world to see,' says Williams."
Re:Samsung? (Score:5, Informative)
As opposed to Japanese brands?
I suggest you read some history of Korea.
Re:Kim who? (Score:5, Informative)
TFA says that this is a pseudonym.
Re:Samsung? (Score:5, Informative)
How about because they have had joint economic development for years at a special economic zone, perhaps?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaesong_Industrial_Region [wikipedia.org]
Re:Kim who? (Score:5, Informative)
Kim, is close to the 'average' nature of a name like Smith in Korea.
Re:Chinese cell phones (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Western spin (Score:5, Informative)
A place with no advertisements, no light pollution, and few cars sounds good to me.
There are plenty of free caves in the mountains.
The dictatorship is bad, but the economic situation is caused by bad location in the globe
As opposed to South Korea? And other surrounding states?
lack of innovation to improve farming/manufacturing, corruption, and bad trading.
Gee, this couldn't possibly have to do anything with the dictatorship of some inane guy...
Re:Samsung? (Score:3, Informative)
If it's sold legally, they probably cover up the word Samsung and replace it with a fake North Korean brand name.
They've done the same thing before, for example their trolley system was allegedly "built in North Korea" despite the fact that it was several decades old and covered in German graffiti.
Re:This really is more than I need to know. (Score:5, Informative)
TFA mentions that there are already patrols near the border trying triangulate the mobile phones transmitting the images into China: I think the secret is out on -how- they do it.
Re:does anyone really care about NK? (Score:3, Informative)
Well, the starvation is shocking to those of us with an iota of compassion.
Also, some of the ridiculous follies of the government are just plain funny.
Example A: the worlds ugliest permanently unfinished hotel. [esquire.com]
Example B: To save on electricity, traffic is directed by police, evidently only women and they only turn counterclockwise. [boingboing.net] I guess because dear leader only likes it when girls turn counterclockwise.
I've Seen North Korea (Score:5, Informative)
shocking north korea video (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.vbs.tv/watch/the-vice-guide-to-travel/vice-guide-to-north-korea-1-of-3
When I saw this, it changed my perception (in a bad way) of just how messed up north korea is.
Re:Kim who? (Score:5, Informative)
"Kim" is even more common a surname in Korea than "Smith" is in English-speaking countries,. It's held by about 1/5 of the population, and if you were to put all of the Kims, Lees, and Parks together, you'd have nearly half of all Koreans right there.
Re:Chinese cell phones (Score:5, Informative)
Well sir we are talking about a impoverished nation here. Are you sure the pigeons would survived without being hunt down and eaten before it crossed the border?
Moderated as funny, but it is serious. I knew a girl who immigrated from a dirt-poor town in the chinese boondocks. She told me that in her town there were no pets, because they had all been eaten for food. North Korea seems to be even more impoverished than that.
Re:Samsung? (Score:3, Informative)
Despite the history of Korea being kicked around by the rest of Asia, there are many unofficial ties between DPRKorea and Japan. Whole communities of rich Juche supporters live in Japan. Even the official news outlet (Korea Central News Agency) runs under a jp domain...
There is a really great japanese movie called "Go" [wikimedia.org] about a teenage zainichi growing up in the north korean ex-pat community in Japan. Really a top-notch coming of age story and I thought it was pretty accessible to western sensibilities too, although there was a sense of being "dropped" into the middle of the culture with little explanation of many of the basics that any japanese person would probably just automatically be familiar with.
Re:does anyone really care about NK? (Score:3, Informative)
For more reporting on the opaque world that is North Korea, I recommend the Vice Guide to North Korea [www.vbs.tv]. Similar to the reporting in the article, this is a hand-held digital camera video documentary done without government approval, but told by a westerner with only officially approved access. Even so, he manages to convey some of the desolation that is the communist dictatorship. The presentation put on by his hosts in hopes of showing off the might of the North Korean state fully supports the reputation they've earned of being "crazy".
Re:Western spin (Score:5, Informative)
For more "through the looking glass" reporting from North Korea, try the Vice Guide [www.vbs.tv]. Similar to Lisa Ling's reporting, but with a more bizarre bent. One must see on the insanity of the regime is the museum of "tribute" from foreign leaders. They've collected all of the stupid little chachkies that various diplomats brought from around the world - plates with state seals, porcelain stuff from the gift shop, whatever - and placed them in a huge under-ground bunker museum. The official position is that these are items of tribute from every leader around the world who recognize that "Dear Leader" is the greatest leader and North Korea is the greatest country. Really.
Re:I've Seen North Korea (Score:3, Informative)
It was the Romanians who killed Ceausescu and his wife without any trial.
It was authorized by the Extraordinary Military Tribunal, established by Ion Iliescu, head of the Council of the Front of National Salvation, and the execution was carried out by three elite paratroopers in the Romanian military, Captain Ionel Boeru, Sergant-Major Georghin Octavian and Dorin-Marian Cirlan.
If you’re going to make the accusation that he and his wife were tried in a kangaroo court and murdered, at least put the blame on the people who actually did it instead of impugning the entire country of Romania.