North Korea Opens .kp Sites On the Internet
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eldavojohn writes "What an auspicious day for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea! To commemorate the 65th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, North Korea will no longer depend on Chinese national internet service to reach the outside world — they have their own connection and are hosting sites like the state run media. The article mentions that about a thousand websites are coming online, including services like Skype and Twitter. From where I sit in the United States, I can't seem to get any .kp TLD sites to resolve, but the news is promising if in fact it will bring more information to the information-starved masses of North Korea."
Yay! (Score:5, Funny)
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In North Korea, Internet registers YOU!
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In North Korea, only old people use that meme.
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In North Korea, Internet registers YOU!
In North Korea, Kim Jong Il registers you, personally.
Re:Yay! (Score:5, Insightful)
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea isn't the best Korea; it's the only Korea, you Capitalist Roadster.
Completely Embrace the Forward Thinking Progress of the People's Informational Movement!! Let The Empowered Voices Of The People Be Audible Across The Web!!* Down With The Internet Imperialists!
*Offer void where in opposition to the rule of the Kim family and the Korean People's Army.
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Information-starved masses won't see the internet (Score:3, Insightful)
I doubt they even have TVs or radios. I bet it's not even legal for them to either.
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
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I read somewhere that their radio was permanently tuned to the govt channel. and you couldn't turn it off. very 1984. i don't know if the author of that article was hyperbolizing the reality in north korea or if 'dear leader' had taken 1984 for a "totalitarian regime for dummies".
Re:Information-starved masses won't see the intern (Score:5, Informative)
I read somewhere that their radio was permanently tuned to the govt channel. and you couldn't turn it off.
Sorta correct. The radios are pre-tuned to the government station, and then sealed. If you're caught with a radio with its seals broken (i.e. someone opened it up) then you're arrested. This is to prevent people from trying to receive signals from South Korea and/or China. You can, however, turn the radios off.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSrcLC6Zz54 [youtube.com]
(Skip to ~1:40 to see them talking about a state radio in every kitchen that can't be turned off)
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I'm sure they only do it as a homage to the TV series The Prisoner.
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almost right.
Technically, the penalty for listening to South Korean broadcasts is death, but a small bribe is usually enough to get off without punishment.
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Re:Information-starved masses won't see the intern (Score:5, Informative)
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TV's are also prominent amongst the higher classes of the country. South Korean soap operas are apparently quite popular to watch illegally on imported DVD'
Re:Information-starved masses won't see the intern (Score:4, Funny)
South Korean soap operas are apparently quite popular to watch illegally on imported DVD'
I would hate to go to jail just because I wanted to find out if Kim ever recovered from double amnesia to discover his wife was really his father's ex-lover...
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The running theme in Korean dramas actually seem to be saint-like wives having to deal with a total monster of a mother-in-law (since traditionally the wife moves in with the husbands family). Problem persists because father-in-law is a total wuss who won't tell his wife to stop being a bitch, the new wife doesn't want to demand respect for whatever reason, and the husband can't do much against his own mother to be effective.
Re:Information-starved masses won't see the intern (Score:5, Informative)
Perhaps someone can provide some citations to info on what frequencies they're using?
A.M. and shortwave radio technology is not high tech. It wouldn't take much knowledge of electronics to make receivers or frequency converters from parts out of old VCRs or whatever.
Clever hacks are possible too. If they're using the low cost Chinese CFL replacements for incandescent lamps, maybe some could be modified to work at a switching frequency that would allow them to act as an conversion oscillator to shift a desired signal to a vacant supported frequency.
Beyond radio inspections, their government might be able to tell what frequency a standard radio is tuned to by detecting radiation from the oscillator. The oscillator normally is offset by a standard amount from the frequency of the selected signal. (typically + 455 kHz for AM, + 10.7 MHz for FM)
To illustrate the principle, one can tune a typical FM radio to a quiet spot on the top half of the band, and hear the oscillator (silence instead of static) when a second nearby radio is tuned 10.7 MHz lower in frequency. I once read of a college station that went around tracking down listeners and surprised a few knocking on doors and giving them a prize. That's a pretty good gag, but hard to do in areas where the band is very congested. When one is tuned to the upper half of the band, the oscillator may fall on VHF aircraft frequencies. That is why many had those bans on using radios when flying.
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I have a friend who is a ham radio operator who took his equipment on a cruise. The cruise ship was being repositioned, so they went around much of the Pacific (my friend is retired). Off the coast of North Korea, he could hear their hams talking. As soon as he tried to contact someone, the air went silent followed shortly by an extremely high power broadcast extolling the virtues of Kim Jong Il. My friend was using a Japanese call sign.
My point is that the equipment and expertise to do some of the things y
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However the principle by which they are working is very real. And in North Korea, there is (supposed to be) silence on all frequencies except the government approved ones, therefore any activity there whatsoever would be a lot easier to pickup.
Re:Information-starved masses won't see the intern (Score:5, Insightful)
I doubt you'll actually bother looking up info on TV/radio ownership in North Korea. I bet your random guessing and stabbing in the dark will get +5 Insightful.
On a tangential ramble, Kim Jong-Il's Comedy Club [bbc.co.uk] was a very interesting documentry, and a rare glimse inside the weider-than-fiction world of North Korea.
Re:Information-starved masses won't see the intern (Score:5, Informative)
In the early ninties, a country profile for the Library of Congress estimated that North Korean had about 250,000 television sets and 3.75 million radio sets, all fixed to receive only government broadcasts. Visitors cannot bring a radio into the country.
Radio and TV sets in North Korea are pre-tuned to government stations that pump out a steady stream of propaganda. The state has been dubbed the world's worst violator of press freedom by the media rights body Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
Press outlets and broadcasters - all of them under direct state control - serve up a menu of flattering reports about Kim Jong-il and his daily agenda. North Korea's economic hardships or famines are not reported.
Ordinary North Koreans caught listening to foreign broadcasts risk harsh punishments, such as forced labour. The authorities attempt to jam foreign-based and dissident radio stations.
The "only glimmer of hope", according to RSF, is the "communications black market" on the North Korean-Chinese border. Recordings of South Korean TV soaps and films are said to circulate. North Korea country profile [bbc.co.uk] [Oct 2, 2010]
If You're Interested, Some Updates from RSF (Score:5, Informative)
The state has been dubbed the world's worst violator of press freedom by the media rights body Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
Huh, you must be referencing an older report. Allow me to bring you up to date on 2010's assessment [rsf.org] of the illustrious Democratic People's Republic of Korea!
Internet: Nothing but a vague rumor
A very limited Intranet has developed, consisting of an email inbox, a few news sites relaying regime propaganda, and a browser providing access to the databank Web pages of the country’s three biggest libraries: the Grand People’s Study House and those of the Kim Il-Sung and Kim Chaek Universities. This Intranet is accessible only by academics, businessmen and high-ranking civil servants who have received special clearance.
Here's to hoping that once that intranet is connected to our internet we see those academics online :)
... there are nation states and there are sad states. I wish there was a non-detrimental way to help the people inside North Korea.
Oh, also, I like how one hour of internet usage in a cafe in North Korea will set you back $8.19 (high even by my cushy American standards) and yet the monthly wage in North Korea is a paltry $17.74. So yeah, go ahead and walk into an internet cafe and blow a month's salary in two hours. I almost feel guilty about bitching about Comcast's $40/month cable internet.
Furthermore Eritrea beat them out in 2009 [rsf.org] leaving them at 174/175 on their worst violators
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The problem is the sheer lack of information. We can kind of see an analogue in the way that many people in western countries, despite having access to many sources of news, tend to gravitate towards the ones that reinforce their points of view. Another problem is the paranoia. An uprising would have to be a popular one, but it's difficult to organise this when there are so many who'd faithfully report subversive activities to the authorities. The GDR was an example of people living in a state where their o
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Given the replies that while there are TVs and radios they're inspected regularly and have to certified to pick up only specific frequencies, I'd say I was close. The information-starved will remain so. They might open the borders enough to pull a China and sell what amounts to slave labor but human rights certainly won't follow.
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"Sorry, this programme is not available to watch again"
Yay for the licence fee! Thank god we have such a cool broadcaster.
Missing the point (Score:2)
I seriously doubt... (Score:5, Insightful)
...that the average North Korean even has a computer to access the internet with.
Re:I seriously doubt... (Score:5, Insightful)
True... but this means we can send as much spam, 911-mails and virusbombs as we like to North Korea, without hurting innocent bystanders :)
It's sort of like painting a big red target on any spot housing party officials, except only visible in the virtual world. And if they went with 3G or mobifi or something, it would be visible in the real world as well.
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Close! But it's the other way around. What it really means is new targets for hackers and botnets, and news ip blocks from which to send SPAM. Looks like I'll be able to trade in my old BMW for a new Audi sooner than expected.
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Re:I seriously doubt... (Score:5, Informative)
If you look at the satellite photo of the world at night (http://www.bertc.com/subfour/truth/night2.htm), it's quite easy to see North Korea -- it's the dark space just West of Japan, and north of the very bright lights of South Korea -- the DMZ is a visible line between light and darkness. Just one little spot of light in the whole country, and the rest is darkness.
The average North Korean doesn't have power, and isn't sure they'll have enough food to eat today.
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> The average North Korean doesn't have power, and isn't sure they'll have enough food to eat today.
Don't knock it, champ. Korean food is the dog's bollocks!
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Prove? I'm not sure how one would prove such a thing, but it's pretty good evidence, at least. What would they be doing with their power if not use it to light up the darkness at night?
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Why argue about about electric power? You can find North Korean famine graves on
Google Earth.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/north-korea-uncovered-palaces-labour-camps-and-mass-graves-1711573.html [independent.co.uk]
That's some economy they've got going there. From what I have read, North Koreans
that live in the north have access to the Chinese border. Some with savings cross the border,
buy a large can of cooking oil, and resell small bags of oil for people to buy for special
occasions. They wouldn't be able to
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Huh? I wasn't aware that anyone outside the propaganda wing of the Kim Regime had any illusions about how sucky life is in the DPRK. Yes, it's possible that North Korea is uniquely dark at night for a populated country because everyone there turns out all their lights at night, unlike everyone else in the world who has ever had electricity. Perhaps they also, uniquely in the history of the world, grow abundant food, but choose not to eat it so they can starve to death in droves. But there would need to
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Who could possibly argue with that?
How come nobody modded this up?
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I also seriously doubt that the people in charge of the .kp domain care much about the average North Korean. Every country on earth, no matter how poor, has its rich and powerful class, who these days are pretty much guaranteed to have a computer and the infrastructure for an internet connection.
And historically, totalitarian governments have been obsessed with compiling, storing, and organizing information. The internet, you may have noticed, is very good for this.
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And historically, totalitarian governments have been obsessed with compiling, storing, and organizing information. The internet, you may have noticed, is very good for this.
The internet is good for storing information? Since when? It is great for DISPLAYING information, and sharing it, and for finding videos of nut shots, but it doesn't actually "store" anything. When a site goes down permanantly, so does all the information unless archive.org has a copy, and if they go down, no one has a copy.
The intern
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In the western world a person is middle class if they can afford multiple cars, a nice house, have no problems food or clothing and have the money to spend on other items. In North Korea you are considered middle class if you can afford to eat a single chicken egg by yourself once a week.
Cheerleading a transparent move on part of NK (Score:3, Insightful)
Even if it does indicate more internal dissemination of information, more information isn't always good, if it's more of the same disinformation.
shouldn't have gotten my hopes up :( (Score:5, Informative)
From the effin' article:
"While Internet access is believed to be available to small group of elite members of the ruling party, the rest of the country is not permitted access to outside sources of news." :(
The real reason for this (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The real reason for this (Score:4, Funny)
Shut up, nerd.
This day in history: October 9, 2010 at 4:15PM, Kim Jong Il makes his first contribution to the Internet, an anonymous posting on a once-popular website called "Slashdot".
Well... given that... (Score:2)
...just about every other national domain has been (ab)used by people thinking of ways to use the letters in "cute" ways, this will doubtless be used the same way. North Korea won't care - money is money. Though I just can't see Kim Possible fans being amongst the takers.
heheh (Score:2)
North Korea is a criminal state (Score:5, Informative)
And now for the real world (Score:5, Interesting)
The above is accurate ALTHOUGH the accusations COULD be put on different countries. The USSR shot down a korean plane that came into its airspace and the US has shot down a Iranian airliner claiming it was an wave of fighter aircraft (despite being far slower climbing constansly and only firing ONE missle at SEVERAL incoming aircraft (real naval action would have been to throw everything at incoming fighters including the kitchen sink after the experience at the falklands)) and as for mas starvation, how many indians died of that again after forced relocation to inhostipable regions of the US to make way for white settlers?
Ancient history? Yeah, that is convenient BUT this ancient history IS being remembered by people around the globe who use it to excuse their own injustices. It is a very powerful excuse. China does not want north korea but it wants the vassal state of south korea even less. That would mean US forces right at its borders. North Korea abducting Japanse citizens? Gosh, somehow I don't see China caring. That would be like Israel caring about germans getting killed. Japan is not wel liked in the region. Something about being a nation riddled with war crimes and never making attonement for it might have something to do with it.
And so North Korea continues to happen. As a buffer against the US as a way of saying "No, rampant captalism will NOT overrun the entire world" as a way of not having to answer just why this was allowed to go on.
And lets face it, IF NK is going to collapse, who is going to pay for it? The reunification of germany cost western germany dearly and is still not going smoothly. The collapse of the USSR has made the world less safe and make life in those regions far less free. One dictartorship fell, countless replaced it.
The world ain't a nice place. NK is one of most not nice places around but it happens because the rest of the world isn't nice enough to stop it. And that includes people like BKMOORE, the parent, who claim SK is only legitimate government... yah. That government never did any wrong. Nope...
AND that is what fuels division and allows NK to exist. If you want to change the world, you got to start with yourself. SK is puppet government that has become legit because it has made economic success so people forgot about the past. If you want to convince the NK that it must change its way, claiming money makes right is not going to do it.
Re:And now for the real world (Score:4, Insightful)
Japan is not wel liked in the region. Something about being a nation riddled with war crimes and never making attonement for it might have something to do with it.
Japan has both apologized and pay reparations numerous times. What more do you want them to do? Resurrect the dead?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_war_apology_statements_issued_by_Japan
Not that simple. (Score:4, Insightful)
The story is much more complicated than that; you're being selective with the facts here. There are a few issues about Japan's attitudes towards its past that still bother the heck out of a lot of people:
The trend is pretty clear: there is a significant conservative segment of the Japanese population whose attitudes just piss off the rest of the region, and there are many politicians who pander to them.
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There are also international treaties, such as the one that created the United Nations. Any signatory to the U.N. chart
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Well, you put your finger on the essential issue. Who gets to define what is lawful?
Appealing to "International Law" does not really get you anywhere, especially with a country that isn't a signatory to international conventions.
For example, the standard in maritime law that was pretty much universally observed was that a state enjoyed sovereignty over waters ou to three miles from its coast. Then the US and a bunch of other nations got together and extended sovereignty to 12 miles plus a 200 mile "Exclus
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Is no reason to "misbehave" because others do, but still don't complain about someone else when yo
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North Korea is another result of the Cold War that has yet to be resolved. External influences and pressures created the State, and are unlikely to correct it without causing serious damage.
Facilitating the deterioration of North Korea would likely lead to an extremely dangerous situation involving millions of refugees, Russia, China, Japan, and the United States. And frankly, that's the reason Kim Jong Il and the necrocracy there still rules. Being next door to China and Russia, the United States doesn't w
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The only legitimate government on the Korean peninsula is the Republic of Korea.
Legitimate? The only legitimate government is the one that can maintain power. It has always been so, throughout history.
So I herd u liek.... (Score:5, Funny)
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mud.kp.
In BEST KOREA only old people ZERG RUSH KEKEKEKE
Hooray! (Score:4, Informative)
Now maybe we'll get Voice of Korea (was Radio Pyongyang) streamed on the internets! That's some good agitprop: "Today, Glorious Leader stated that he is pleased at the 3000% increase in rice production announced by the Ministry of Agriculture. The running dog capitalist Western press had no comment on our great achievement." Really! They still broadcast stuff like this. It really doesn't get any better, comedy-wise.
Re:Hooray! (Score:5, Insightful)
every country believes they are the best (Score:2)
nationalism is not a trait unique to the usa, nor north korea, not brazil, china, india, switzerland, norway, etc...
then india is doomed (Score:2)
nationalism is like a glue. without which, the pieces fly apart
indians have to believe in the idea of india for india to exist. if enough don't there's no pool of people to tap to keep the country together
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Well, considering how many people in the US still think we're the best at absolutely everything, it's not that hard to believe.
It's a lot easier to believe reports that your country is doing well when you own a house, have a decent car and a good job, and already have eaten one meal this morning with the almost certainty of having two more later in the day.
hmmmm (Score:2)
Glorious internet.. (Score:2, Funny)
I'm betting their computers are like their tv's.. a cardboard box with the glorious leader's picture on it.
dig kp. SOA - nothing so far. (Score:2)
"dig kp. SOA" - nothing so far. Is this article a hoax?
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Googling for site:.kp shows two different domains (kcce.kp and friend.com.kp) but nothing resolves here.
Potemkin Internet? (Score:2)
I will certainly be checking my browser... (Score:2)
DPRK ip block info... (Score:5, Interesting)
I have some scripts which periodically scan DPRK ips, and found a few things recently.
There is a news site at http://175.45.179.68
There are a couple http/https servers with self-signed certs for domains which dont yet exist:
176.45.176.6/7
And there are cisco routers at 175.45.176.131, 175.45.177.193,194,197,198,201
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I'll add stuff as I find it...
smtp:
175.45.176.10
175.45.176.11
ftp:
175.45.176.12
J
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250 spinef1.star.net.kp
MAIL FROM:kimjongil@spinef1.star.net.kp
250 sender ok
RCPT TO:kimjongil@spinef1.star.net.kp
550 #5.1.0 Address rejected.
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Nothing really interesting there. It's an smtp server. Those JUST GUESSING entries are what other nmap users submitted to the nmap website:
http://insecure.org/cgi-bin/submit.cgi?corr-os [insecure.org]
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telnet 175.45.179.67 110
Trying 175.45.179.67...
Connected to 175.45.179.67.
Escape character is '^]'.
+OK Microsoft Exchange 2000 POP3 server version 6.0.4417.0 (email.kp.col.cn) ready.
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Branding. Gotta be his signature font. Probably nobody else gets to use times new roman.
Or an artifact of translation? Who knows!
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I liked this one:
Pyongyang, September 28 (KCNA) -- On April 15, Juche 86 (1997) leader Kim Jong Il inspected an army unit defending Height 1211 in the frontline area.
The officials accompanying him were worried about his safety because of the rugged road to the height and a thick fog.
When the car carrying him reached the foot of the mountain, the fog suddenly disappeared with the mountain road clearly seen.
The officials were relieved at the phenomen
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Too bad the god-like Kim John Il cannot rain manna down to feed his people, or feed his people, period.
More information (Score:5, Insightful)
I tried to read that aloud with a straight face but failed miserably.
I see a site (Score:2)
I see a site: www.faxesofevil.kp...it appears to be a free internet fax service.
Should we start a pool? (Score:2)
When will the first North Korean porn site open?
And how long after that will it be taken down?
And how long after that will its proprietors be executed?
Some KP webservers from 175.45.176.0/22 (Score:2, Funny)
175.45.179.68 [175.45.179.68]
They appear to like RHEL:
175.45.176.6 [175.45.176.6]
175.45.176.7 [175.45.176.7]
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High Comedy (Score:2)
"....but the news is promising if in fact it will bring more information to the information-starved masses of North Korea." ....You're trying to be funny, right?
From a faulty premise, any conclusion may follow (Score:2, Insightful)
"...but the news is promising if in fact it will bring more information to the information-starved masses of North Korea".
I don't see why the existence of ".kp" domains will bring more information to the folks in North Korea, any more than the words
"Democratic People's Republic" in the country's official name would make it owned by the people, democratic, or a republic.
Labels have power, sure, but not always the way one hopes.
Remember Kremvax? (Score:3)
Anyone remember Kremvax [jargon.net]? Started out as a hoax, but eventually becamse something real.
In an even more ironic historical footnote, kremvax became an electronic center of the anti-communist resistance during the bungled hard-line coup of August 1991. During those three days the Soviet UUCP network centered on kremvax became the only trustworthy news source for many places within the USSR. Though the sysops were concentrating on internal communications, cross-border postings included immediate transliterations of Boris Yeltsin's decrees condemning the coup and eyewitness reports of the demonstrations in Moscow's streets
Who knows, perhaps someday the nascent net in Korea will lead to something greater?
Wow thats... (Score:2)
nuts.kp [kpnuts.com]
I just registered a URL shortener (Score:2)
I registered bit.kp for use as a URL shortener, in honor of Kim Jong-il's adorable short stature. What could possibly go wrong?
Oh, crap. They just repossessed it. I better go blog about this!
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How is it ironic, that they create the perfect tld for kiddie porn by giving one to a sovereign country which has the 60 years of human rights abuses as its #1 talking point?
We are talking about a country that has a problem with cannibalism [wnd.com] for eff's sake, kiddie porn is child's play.
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Given how puritanical Communist governments tend to be, that seems unlikely. You can bet that every .kp domain will be very, very carefully vetted by legions of low-level officials ... and if they screw up (so to speak) and let any porn site through, whether it's child porn or not, the penalties will be a lot worse than just getting fired.
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Not a problem [hongfire.com]
-