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."
Samsung? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Samsung? (Score:5, Informative)
As opposed to Japanese brands?
I suggest you read some history of Korea.
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I'm not trying to be an ass, but you need to re-read the entire article. You completely missed the whole point.
Re:Samsung? (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm hesitant to post this; but here goes...
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 [kcna.co.jp]) runs under a jp domain...
As for my hesitancy: Outside of the obtuse one-liners, the standard Western person (and most news media) seems to be completely uninterested in that region, yet still feels that they should analyze and report on the situation.
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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.
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True DPRK always seems to be willing to work in it's own self interest. That was kind of my point. If they don't have a problem with Sony they sure as shooting will not have an issue with Samsung.
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I think that by 'uninterested' he meant they were unwilling to do their homework to actually understand the region.
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They probably aren't. My guess would be it's black market.
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]
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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:Samsung? (Score:5, Funny)
...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.
By "German graffiti" I assume you mean, "German praises to Our Dear Leader by the Western pig-dogs who were so amazed when they visited the best trolley factory in the world that they were moved to paint their awe upon the trolley cars as a never-ending testimony."
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By "German graffiti" I assume you mean, "German praises to Our Dear Leader by the Western pig-dogs who were so amazed when they visited the best trolley factory in the world that they were moved to paint their awe upon the trolley cars as a never-ending testimony."
"Der liebe Führer hat Geschlecht mit kranken Barnyardtieren."
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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.
[Shrug]Most of the graffiti I saw on and around the trains in Italy were in English. Probably more L33t to spray in a foreign language. Either that or a bunch of Man U supporters had been by.
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This really is more than I need to know. (Score:5, Insightful)
Really do we need to know how this is done? I am hoping this is a red heiring and that they are using other methods to get the SD cards out.
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.
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I thought that the story said they where actually traveling to China with the SD cards.
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I am hoping this is a red heiring
A communist inheritance?
Chinese cell phones (Score:5, Insightful)
The interesting part is that they use Chinese cellphone networks, which leak into North Korea at the border, to get the videos out. (The Burmese opposition also does that, connecting to Bengladeshi networks.)
I wonder why China lets that happen, as it would be trivial for them to ban any data coverage in this area and/or report any suspicious activity to the North Korean authorities. Maybe it's a way for them to put some pressure on their North Korean "ally", which has become somewhat of an embarrasment to them lately.
If cell phone coverage goes down, they could still use carrier pigeons to send Flash drives to China or South Korea...
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I wonder why China lets that happen, as it would be trivial for them to ban any data coverage in this area and/or report any suspicious activity to the North Korean authorities. Maybe it's a way for them to put some pressure on their North Korean "ally", which has become somewhat of an embarrasment to them lately.
Maybe they use it as a cheap and easy way to get their own information out of the country?
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Re:Chinese cell phones (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Chinese cell phones (Score:5, Insightful)
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create a refugee situation where hundreds of thousands of uneducated, dirt poor, and starving people come streaming across the border.
Would they notice the difference?
Re:Chinese cell phones (Score:5, Insightful)
And that's the China-North Korea situation in a nutshell. I'm on a horse.
Re:Chinese cell phones (Score:4, Insightful)
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They've already got that. The last thing they want is for NK to collapse, be taken over by or reunify with SK, and lose their buffer state between them and US troops.
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A sense of moral responsibility would be pretty far down on the list of why the Chinese government does anything.
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Re:Chinese cell phones (Score:5, Funny)
If cell phone coverage goes down, they could still use carrier pigeons to send Flash drives to China or South Korea...
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?
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.
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How do you stop a radio signal? (Score:2)
How do you STOP a radio signal? These are ordinary chinese towers to which ordinary chinese telephones connect. That they come from the south instead of the north would not be impossible to block but not a standard on how cellphones work. And why would China?
North Korea isn't just a buffer for them between and the US but also a very nice "You think you got it bad Hong Kong? It can be worse." Any Chinese person who wonders if the Chinese communist regime is repressive only has to look south. It is kinda lik
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How do you STOP a radio signal?
Triangulate on its source and nuke it from orbit, of course.
Which, incidentally, is pretty much what the North Korean government is doing when they detect radio signals being broadcast, according to the article... well, except the bit about nuking it from orbit. I have no idea why China would want to help them pin down the unauthorized broadcasts, though.
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It is kinda like Jews in England, a very anti-semitic nation
Please explain, as I've never heard anyone say anything like that before.
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If cell phone coverage goes down, they could still use carrier pigeons to send Flash drives to China or South Korea...
There is the small problem of getting Chinese or South Korean carrier pigeons _into_ North Korea, first.
And the not-so-small problem keeping them un-eaten long enough to fly home with the data.
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Maybe he meant clay pigeons.
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This is correct. China doesn't want a conflict with the US or Japan because they know they will take huge military and economic loses. Trade is what made China strong for hundreds of years and military conflicts with the West made it weak.
However they made a pledge to stand by North Korea decades ago and they will not dishonor themselves by turning their back on North Korea now.
They don't know the DPRK to totally collapse because that would lead to a refuge crisis the likes of which the world hasn't seen si
People appear to be starving in North Korea (Score:2)
Re:People appear to be starving in North Korea (Score:5, Insightful)
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If you knew anything about North Korea, you already knew that. The article is actually about the methods, technology, and people that are working to show the world what the real conditions are like inside North Korea. There are a shocking number of people in the world that believe NK's official statements and state guided tours of carefully chosen locations. They see pictures of a somewhat backward but otherwise prosperous city, but only because the city in it's entirety has been build, maintained and ev
I've Seen North Korea (Score:5, Informative)
Re:I've Seen North Korea (Score:5, Interesting)
As a Romanian, I can tell you that it wasn't the Romanians who took care of them, although that was the general feeling in the West.
The "good guy" in that particular situation was the KGB.
Re:I've Seen North Korea (Score:5, Insightful)
When a KGB agent is the good guy, you know the rest of the situation is f*cked up...
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When one bad guy is killing other bad guys, it doesn’t necessarily make him a good guy. It does, however, sometimes work out best to just stand back and wait to see who’s left when the dust settles.
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divide and conquer by letting enemy infighting self-control the problem? Interesting.
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As a Romanian, I can tell you that I couldn't care less who was behind it, the guy got what he deserved.
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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 count
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)
TFA says that this is a pseudonym.
Re:Kim who? (Score:5, Funny)
I sure hope there is no one ACTUALLY named Kim Dong-cheol then.
North Korean secret police: Are you Kim Dong-cheol?
KDC: Yes sir, but not the one who is in this article!
Police: Better safe than sorry, you get 12 years hard labor.
KDC: I'm not a driver for any corporation! I don't have any cameras!
Police: Well then 20 years for embarrassing dear leader!
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I sure hope there is no one ACTUALLY named Kim Dong-cheol then.
North Korean secret police: Are you Kim Dong-cheol? KDC: Yes sir, but not the one who is in this article! Police: Better safe than sorry, you get 12 years hard labor. KDC: I'm not a driver for any corporation! I don't have any cameras! Police: Well then 20 years for embarrassing dear leader!
KDC: But I haven't done anything to discredit our glorious leader or our glorious nation
Police: BLAM! BLAM! All hail our glorious leader!
Police: Are you Kim Dong-cheol?
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Still, if the article is factually accurate with the information they give I wouldn't want to be the guy. They've got pictures from 3 different locations that the guy has been including pictures of people he's been in contact with. Now it seems that the pictures are careful to avoid landmarks and identifying features but a good, well equipped intelligence service would probably be able to identify him just based on the pictures and his stated occupation. North Korea's internal intelligence certainly has
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>>"Kim Dong-cheol is a North Korean with 'a double life' Not anymore.
For all you know, the name Kim Dong-cheol may be the American equivalent of John Smith. We too readily apply our local expectations to foreign situations.
Re:Kim who? (Score:5, Informative)
Kim, is close to the 'average' nature of a name like Smith in Korea.
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So Kim Il Sung is a bit like ... Joseph Smith?
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Step 2: ???
Step 3: Prophet!
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:Kim who? (Score:4, Insightful)
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For all you know, the name Kim Dong-cheol may be the American equivalent of John Smith.
Or Heywood Jablome [snopes.com].
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Re:Kim who? (Score:4, Funny)
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The name was the important thing for inspiring the necessary fear. You see, no one would surrender to the Dread Pirate Westley...
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[guard starts dipping mechanism]
Dr. Evil: Close the tank!
Scott Evil: Wait, aren't you even going to watch them? They could get away!
Dr. Evil: No no no, I'm going to leave them alone and not actually witness them dying, I'm just gonna assume it all went to plan. What?
Scott Evil: I have a gun, in my room, you give me five seconds, I'll get it, I'll come back down here, BOOM, I'll blow their brains out!
Dr. Evil: Scott, you j
Re:does anyone really care about NK? (Score:4, Insightful)
To answer your question - yes. Lots of us care about North Korea.
It does suck to feel pretty helpless for the most part though there are a number of avenues available to help in small ways. Humans are a varied bunch in a number of ways and while you have one view point, many hold others.
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"Does anyone really care" that you don't care about NK?
TFA is about some specific people who do care about it, enough to risk death, or worse. Maybe that answers your question.
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... i don't really care about life in north korea.
sure it sucks for people there, but i'm not living there. except for a few crazy people who try to sneak in, most people want to get out. i can't do anything about the people living there so it's not a priority for me
Much the same could have been said about Afghanistan in the 90s.
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afghanistan is Muslim which has a long history of conflict with Christianity. and Afghanistan has a long history of warfare with what we consider Western civilization. Alexander conquered it and it was known as Bactria then. The Romans fought there as well. The British invaded in the 1800's. and of course the Russians.
Korea hasn't had much historical conflict with the western world and the only reason not to like americans is because the government tells them. it's not like there is a history or recent inva
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it's not like there is a history or recent invasion so your grandparents can keep the tension going through family/tribal stories
Doesn't the Korean War count as recent?
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one war in 1959-1959
compare that to afghanistan. constant invasions.
it's always the little cultural things that amaze me. in the US the doctors say don't feed a child if they say no. my inlaws and my grandparents' generation believe in stuffing a kid till they burst and that a healthy child is obese by US standards. finally i figured it out. if you look at the last few hundred years of history in the USSR where i'm from there was always a war and/or a famine where 10% - 20% or more of the population died. s
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one war in 1959-1959
compare that to afghanistan. constant invasions.
Conversely, the US wasn't involved with constant invasions in to Afghanistan. Yet Afghanistan offered a safe harbor to a group that already had a history of attacking US interests.
Geopolitics are much more complex than a simple scoreboard.
Having said that, the point here is that what happens to others in the world can still affect you. Sometimes dramatically.
Re:does anyone really care about NK? (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, with the "I can't" attitude, you're right. But if you stopped thinking individually, instead more along the lines of "We can't" - then you'd be lying, because there is a lot that we can do together.
The reason why people make these videos and images isn't so that 1 person on the other side of the border can feel sympathy and try to revolutionize everythings - its for massive appeal to as many people as possible, so that a large group of people might undertake humanitarian efforts.
But - I mean, go ahead with that attitude. Does anyone really care about you? I mean, I've hardly interacted with you, but there isn't anything I can do to change your mind, you aren't a priority. In fact - I can't do anything about anything my own country - my one vote is drowned by millions of others, my recycling efforts are negated by others negligance, and even my job is so replacable by someone else that my contributions to society are really nothing.
If you don't feel particularily humanitarian about something - like you don't want to help the North Koreans, that's absolutely fine. Freedom of opinion. But don't parade it under the guise that "I would if I could".
Re:does anyone really care about NK? (Score:4, Insightful)
I care.
Millions of people as slaves to a totalitarian monarchy and millions of men under arms destabilizing the entire region.
If there was an opening of the DPRK, following the refugee crisis and 10-20 years of economic hardship for the Republic of Korea to bring the north into Third World status, the United States, Japan, and RoK would all be able to back forces from the brink of war, downsize military spending and remove a nuclear threat from the region.
The US would be able to fold up an Army division, forward Marine base and most of an Air Force alone.
Furthermore it would be one less thing where the US and Japan oppose the Russian Federation and People's Republic of China.
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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.
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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
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No, they fought for what they thought was a better life and were misled and betrayed by their leaders.
I have heard that before... (Score:2)
At my university, the Environmental Science department has offices next to the ROTC staff - I commented on this apparent irony to one of the Environmental Science guys, and he pointed out that a side-effect of military' bases secure zones as wildlife preserves. That effect isn't limited to DMZs per se; here's a local example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seneca_White_Deer [wikipedia.org]
Good job on his part fishing for a connection between two apparently-unrelated things, I do that all the time in other fields.
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in the 1990's the military became very environmentally friendly since it's good for business. you need trees and the natural environment for realistic training. other than having no training zones for endangered species living on military bases we used to do things like put plastic under trucks while refueling so that diesel fuel wouldn't pollute the water table
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no sense causing even more destruction than is theoretically necessary, eh?
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Starving to death is so under-rated.
And everything you list as being a cause of the problems of North Korea, other than geographic location are due to the dictatorship.
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A place with no advertisements, no light pollution, and few cars sounds good to me.
I think what the AC is really looking for is Sark [wikipedia.org].
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Hell, Esmerelda County, NV [wikipedia.org] is probably a lot easier to get to for most /.ers and nearly as remote.
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The dictatorship is bad, but the economic situation is caused by bad location in the globe, lack of innovation to improve farming/manufacturing, corruption, and bad trading.
“Bad location” that it shares with South Korea and Japan, and lack of innovation, corruption, and bad trading that are mainly due to the dictatorship and its repressive policies. But hey, if it sounds so good to you, why don’t you go live there?
Re:Western spin (Score:5, Insightful)
A place with no advertisements, no light pollution, and few cars sounds good to me.
The dictatorship is bad, but the economic situation is caused by bad location in the globe, lack of innovation to improve farming/manufacturing, corruption, and bad trading.
Are you fucking serious?
Let me give you just one example. A doctor goes to NK to treat cataracts using a simple procedure. He cures the blindness of a hundred people in one sitting. When they take the bandages off, the first thing they do when they can see is rush past the doctor to worship the pictures of the Dear Leader and the Great General and thank them for the gift of sight. Of course, that's what they have to do in the presence of the authorities or any cameras whose contents are likely to be viewed by the authorities.
NK is a tin pot hereditary dictatorship, it is a necrocracy with a dead man as its head of state. It is a surreal world that shows what happens when absolute power gets into the hands of an unstable lunatic. Its people are the most oppressed in the modern world.
"Bad location in the globe" my trunks. It's within easy trading distance of Japan on one side and China on the other.
Jesus wept!
Re:Western spin - Dictatorship (Score:2)
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.
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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:Western spin (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Western spin (Score:5, Insightful)
You know what's worse than advertisements? Not being able to buy anything because there's nothing to buy. No food, no clothes, no nothing. You know what's worse than light pollution? Not being able to turn the lights on at night. You know what's worse than cars and traffic? An ox cart pulled by a malnourished ox that you're seriously considering turning into food this winter, even though the meat's tougher than nails and it means you'll have to pull your plow by hand next spring. But, hey, it's that or starve.
But, hey, that fixie you were riding on before you posted your nonsense on this thread will totally come in handy in the Middle Ages-meets-zombie apocalypse world you have mapped out in your sociopathic head as an "ideal utopia" for your urban hipster douchebaggery. Good luck with that.