North Korea Advertises Military Hardware On Twitter and YouTube, Defying Sanctions (vice.com) 61
eatmorekix shares a report from Motherboard: Glocom, a front company for the government of North Korea that sells sanctioned equipment, isn't giving up. In 2017, before YouTube quietly removed Glocom's channel, the company was advertising missile navigation and other military products on the video platform. But Glocom has returned. It setup a new channel, and also had a presence on Twitter, until Motherboard flagged Glocom's accounts to social media companies. The news not only signals the perseverance of parts of the North Korean's money-making enterprises, but also a slice of the content moderation issues that tech platforms constantly face. Glocom "is using them as platforms to market sanctions violating products," Shea Cotton, research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, and who has a particular focus on North Korea, told Motherboard in an email. A United Nations report says that Glocom is run by North Korean intelligence agents, even though it pitches itself as a Malaysian company.
Cotton said "this company continues to operate openly. Most DPRK [Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea] fronts, when exposed, usually fold or at the very least shut down and move their operations to another country and re-open under a new name. This one hasn't done that. We've seen them try to create this spin off brand called 'FACOM' and sell a few of their products under it but as you've seen their main brand is still thriving apparently."
Cotton said "this company continues to operate openly. Most DPRK [Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea] fronts, when exposed, usually fold or at the very least shut down and move their operations to another country and re-open under a new name. This one hasn't done that. We've seen them try to create this spin off brand called 'FACOM' and sell a few of their products under it but as you've seen their main brand is still thriving apparently."
who is buying? (Score:3)
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"but they don't make it illegal for them to try to sell." It makes facilitating the advertising of a sale illegal, yes it sure does. Lots of countries in Africa buy NK weapons. They're dirt cheap and the US won't sell to them.
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It would only be illegal if North Korea were under anyone's legal authority. They aren't and can do what they like.
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This is slashdot, don't underestimate the energy people put into farting.
Treaties (Score:3)
Anyone who didn't sign the UN treaty on the sanctions. Probably Iran, Myanmar, Cuba, etc...
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All their direct communications are monitored, the ships with the delivery would be seized.
They have to hide within the regular data stream somewhere and pretend to be from somewhere else. Like Malaysia.
And they have trouble traveling without being monitored, too, so they can't just do it in person like most criminals.
Advertising (Score:2)
I'm guessing North Korea doesn't keep tabs on exactly who doesn't care about UN treaties. Rebel and guerilla groups, terrorist organizations, shady governments - there are all kinds of potential customers for their weapons. I don't think they particularly care to whom they sell.
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People who have oil-prince money to spend on international terror operations.
It's time we spent an afternoon turning the DPRK military and missile test facilities into slag. It's a fake country that has no more reason to exist than East Germany did.
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It's time we spent an afternoon turning the DPRK military and missile test facilities into slag. It's a fake country that has no more reason to exist than East Germany did.
Did you ever consider you are the reason so many countries have a completely legitimate desire for nuclear deterrence?
Re: who is buying? (Score:3, Funny)
Son, that comment wreaks of communism. Turn your heart to Jesus and pass the ammo.
Re: who is buying? (Score:2)
Yes, the people living under the boot of their NK theocrat/necrocrat/dictator really want him to have Nuclear weapons so that he can stand up to random Slashdot commenters.
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I can just imagine trying to explain slashdot to a North Korean.
Or nuclear weapons, for that matter.
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LOL.. You DO realize that they really do have laws in DPRK lots of laws in fact, what they lack is freedom access to information.
Remember, they just re-elected Kim's party in an overwhelming majority and are in the process of rounding up anybody who voted the wrong way and shipping them off, along with their immediate family and any distant relatives who are suspect, to the "reeducation camps" where you make little rocks out of big ones.
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He was not on the ballot. It was in the news.
They only fake-elect a parliament, and he decided he's not going to get stuck wearing that hat anymore. His sister ran, though.
It would be an insult to suggest that Rocket Boy had to stand for election for his main job. The parliament merely observes his greatness periodically.
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You're an arrogant prick without much knowledge. But I guess you feel the Eisenhower / Kennedy / Johnson / Nixon / Ford / Carter / Reagan / Bush / Clinton / Bush / Obama strategy worked well. It failed.
66 years of stalemate that resulted in NK building nuclear weapons. Congrats on that, asshole. You're the champion of failure and mediocrity.
Trump may very well fail. But so did every one of his predecessors. At least a new tactic was tried.
Fuck off.
And the NSA is utterly unaware of this? (Score:1)
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The CIA, MI6 and SAS will then take an interest later.
comment subject: (Score:2)
Missile technology is being sold on the facetweets. What a time to be alive.
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Pew Pew Pew Pew Pew!
And the Leader of the Free World is an Orange-Skinned Lizard Creature; we haven't even figured out what planet it is from yet.
At least weed is finally legal.
Wrong site, innit? (Score:3)
Twitter? Isn't this kind of thing more appropriate for Etsy?
"Handmade by local artisans, not by a big corporation. Our carbon footprint is 5x lower than other countries in the region."
Looks like Trump's little buddy is a busy boy (Score:3, Insightful)
Short of waving his pecker in Donald Trump's face, is there anything more blatant Kim Jong Un could to to show the US he will do whatever he likes, and because he has nukes, there's sweet FA the US can do about it?
Re:Looks like Trump's little buddy is a busy boy (Score:4, Insightful)
Japan does have missile defense, and in a war in Korea, Seoul is the prize, they wouldn't want to nuke it. There isn't much else for them to shoot at other than Guam or Hawaii.
The whole "bombard Seoul to shit in 30 minutes" stuff is a load of math-challenged crap. They have n artillery pieces, but in a war they have to aim most of them at the enemy artillery pieces, or in the 30 minutes they don't even have artillery anymore. They have lots of artillery pieces, but the number believed to be aimed to Seoul is more like "dozens."
And if they did aim it all at Seoul, artillery doesn't destroy a city that fast. With artillery it takes continuous bombardment for months to level a city; in 30 minutes you're not even knocking down buildings. People moved away from the exposed side of buildings in the first few minutes, and are taking shelter on the far sides and in basements. You would have thousands of casualties, sure, but not millions.
It isn't like they can send waves of bombers over the city or anything like that.
Carpet bombing wouldn't be needed to stop it, they have computers that observe the artillery fire and calculate the location. Some of it is dug in, but accurate return fire still plugs the cave they're firing out of.
Validity of Parent Post? (Score:1)
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How about rebuild the launch platform he said he scrapped?
Oh, wait...
Who's surprised? (Score:1)
Malaysia sucks NorK dick.