INTERNET IN NORTH KOREA

Transcription

1 INTERNET IN NORTH KOREA

2 Poster in a school in Pyongyang. The technology can often be seen in the propaganda stuff, specially in the remote areas, even if few can access to it. North Korea is not linked to the Internet.

3 Study House In Pyongyang. This man is a kind of «Google Answers». He can access to all the datas in the Study House thru his computer. People come to ask questions, and 24h later he gives you the answer.

4 Awarded Pc.The North Korean government loves to give medals. Not only to soldiers, but even to PC! A machine has been built to last, for! example, 10 years. If it lasts more than 10 y e a r s, t h e government awards it. PCs, bridges, tractors, buses, can all be awarded medals too.! The number 26 award is a l l o c a t e d s p e c i fi c a l l y t o machines. Elevator i used and even rollercatsers received awards

5 20,000 young north koreans facing the spectators during the Arirang show in Kim Il Sung giant stadium in Pyongyang, flip coloured cards at a high speed to form a fresco of animated and detailed images. This one illustrates the education thru the technology in North Korea. Most of the spectators are soldiers and have never used a PC.

6 ! In the Grand People's Study House in Pyongyang. Officials reckon there is room for 30 million books to be stored... but only a couple of thousand books are available. The North Korean people can access a CD library and hear the recordings on big ghetto blasters. The choice of CDs is not massive. You can listen to the radio, or watch TV too but only the national channel because the tuner is also blocked on the local frequency... And for some years, PC are available, connected only to a local intranet.

7 A search page on the Kwangmyong ( Bright Star ) national intranet. The north korean intranet, mixing all kind of technical and scientific stuff Everyone using the national intranet is monitored by the authorities. The guides always tell you it is «internet», but when you ask to visit a foreign website, the adress is blocked..

8 The web is also a good way to promote the north korean ideology.. kcna.kp website is the major source of informations spread to the world, focusing on the activities of Kim Jong Un Few researchers and engineers have access to internet, and they are strictly supervised by the government.

9 Some companies uses internet, like the KTC, the travel company from the government. The mail is working but everybody s got the same address, there are no personal s. The same principle is used in the touristic hotels, where you can send mails and receive some but on only 1 adress for all the costumers! Forget the privacy!

10 Officially, 2 M North Koreans have access to a computer but few are connected to the national intranet as you need to be in an university or an official office. Everyone who owns a computer must register it. USB keys and small hard drives have become an huge source of information from outside the country.

11 A visit in a farm can lead to a very special moment: the family i was able to meet had a computer in the daughter s room. When i asked to see what she was doing with it, she sat and started to type, but there was no electricity It is pay of the propaganda stuff that can turns to comic The mousepad is a Mickey Mouse one.

12 On the DMZ, this north korean girl saw my Ipad and asked to use it as she already heard the «Samjiyon» tablet, North Korea's answer to the ipad. She hardly believed that millions of people around the world could access to mails, web, and any kind of multimedia content thru this little machine.

13 Computer Room In Samjiyon Children s Palace. Samjiyon is a little town in North Korea, near there chinese border. There is a room where the kids learn how to use the computers and can access to thousands of videos about the life of the Dear leaders in videos, pictures ands speeches..

14 It was not possible to remove the protection from the PC for the picture.

15 The mobiles phones from North Korea have all the options to access to the web, but the 2M subscribers do not have this option Foreigners can sometimes have this option, but as usual, the rules can change quickly! In september, North Korean authorities said that foreign embassies and international NGOs working in North Korea could no longer use WiFi to connect to the internet, citing interests of national security. It is sometimes possible to connect to Twitter or Facebook with a connection only available to foreigners which costs 150 euros for the SIM card, and 150 euros for 2 G of data.

16 Eric LAFFORGUE