North Korea on Twitter

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North Korea appears to have ramped up its propaganda war against South Korea and the US by turning to Twitter and YouTube – websites that most citizens of the reclusive communist country are banned from viewing. The World’s technology correspondent Clark Boyd has more. Download MP3 Join the conversation about North Korea on Twitter below.

It is common to use words like “reclusive” and “secretive” when writing about North Korea.

But last Thursday, the North Koreans created a Twitter account – @uriminzok, a shortened version of a Korean word that translates as “our people”.

It already has more than 4,500 followers.

The move to Twitter follows last month’s launch of a North Korean YouTube channel, which now hosts close to 80 videos.

“The North Koreans are technologically literate,” says Hazel Smith, a long-time North Korea researcher at Cranfield University in Britain.

Ms Smith says that the North Koreans have been investing heavily in information technology now for more than 20 years.

“They have a cadre of people who can use modern social networking sites. But the problem for them is the content,” she said.

On the North Korean YouTube channel, that content includes a lot of propaganda laced with bombastic rhetoric; the United States and South Korea are often called “warmongers”.

In a recent Twitter post, the North Koreans said the current administration in South Korea was “a prostitute” of the US.

“As far as content goes, there’s nothing new as far as I can tell,” says Sung-Yoon Lee, professor of International Politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Boston.

Mr Lee says that the agency responsible for the videos and the tweets is a major arm of the country’s ruling communist party.

“They’ve been putting out stuff like this for years now,” said Mr Lee.

‘Government’s voice’

The irony is that the vast majority of North Korea’s 23 million people have no Internet access, and therefore cannot follow their own government’s social networking sites.

And even if they could follow, they would not be allowed to use social media to criticize the regime, says Gilles Lordet, chief editor of Reporters without Borders in Paris.

“There is absolutely no press freedom at all in North Korea, no independent media,” Mr Lordet said. “There is only the government, the voice of the regime.”

For now, North Korea’s online offerings are only in Korean.

But Professor Lee thinks that they might soon expand their offerings to include video clips and posts in English.

“The North Koreans already produce propaganda material in English, through the Korean Central News Agency,” he said. “They have the wherewithal to do it.”

He added: “It will just take them a little more time and effort.”

• North Korea’s Twitter feed
• North Korea on YouTube
• The World team on Twitter

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KATY CLARK: North Korea these days seems to be reaching out in a variety of ways. With art, as we just heard. And perhaps shockingly, through the world’s most popular social networking site. North Korea now has a presence on Twitter and its own channel on YouTube. But don’t expect to be trading tweets with Kim Jong-il anytime soon. The World’s technology correspondent Clark Boyd has our story.

CLARK BOYD:  North Korea’s Twitter handle is “uriminzok,” a shortened Korean word that translates at “our people.” More than 4,500 people are now following. Not bad considering it only launched last Thursday. The move to Twitter follows last month’s creation of an official North Korean YouTube channel, now with almost 80 videos to choose from. Hazel Smith is a professor at Cranfield University in Britain. She’s studied North Korea for more than two decades and lived in the country from 1998 to 2001. She’s not at all surprised at the North Korean’s seemingly new-found tech prowess. After all, she says, they’ve been investing heavily in science and IT for the past 20 years.

HAZEL SMITH:  They are technologically literate and they have a big cadre of people who can use information technology in the modern sense and would know fairly easily how to physically use a social networking site. But the problem, of course, with them is content.

BOYD: Yeah, content. No cute videos of cats on the North Korean YouTube channel, that’s for sure. But you do get a fairly excited presenter talking about the recent sinking of a South Korean military vessel.

KOREAN SPEAKING

BOYD: There’s also a series of clips condemning the United States and South Korea as warmongers. And in one video the South Korean Foreign Minister is called a pro-American flunkie who should make his living by “mopping the floors of the Pentagon.” On the Twitter feed this morning, the North Koreans called the South Korean president’s administration a “prostitute of the United States.” In other words, while the media have changed, the message hasn’t.

SUNG-YOON LEE: There’s nothing new as far as I can tell.

BOYD: Sung-Yoon Lee is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

LEE: The government agency that is putting these out is an arm of a major committee of the Korean Workers Party, the North Korean Communist Party. And they have been putting out stuff like this, propaganda denouncing South Korean, criticizing the United States, denouncing Japan, for years now.

‘

BOYD: And there’s a great irony here. The vast majority of North Korea’s 23 million people can’t access the internet. Can’t even follow their government via social networking sites. And certainly wouldn’t be able to criticize or respond. Again, Hazel Smith.

SMITH:  The internet globally is associated with the ability for individuals to engage in freedom of expression. Because that’s not permitted in North Korea, the use the social networking sites to get their message over is really not going to be very productive for them. In fact, obviously it’s going to be counterproductive.

BOYD: One things for sure, the North Korean’s take their propaganda very seriously. For now, it’s all in Korean, but that might change. The Fletcher School’s Sung-Yoon Lee says he wouldn’t be surprised if he started to see some English language videos and Twitter messages in the coming months. For The World, this is Clark Boyd.

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