Imagine yourself living in what’s often called the most secretive country on the planet.
To you much of the outside world is a mystery; much of what you do know comes by way of government
propaganda.
While unbeknownst to you officials in your country might be free to use Facebook, Twitter
and LinkedIn, there’s no way you’re getting on those social media platforms.
You do have a computer, though, and it’s online.
What you can see is only what the government allows you to see.
Let’s have a look at what kind of sites you might see when using the internet in North
Korea.
We should first point out that up until recently no one really knew much about what North Koreans
do online.
People’s surfing habits were kept almost as secret as the country’s missile development.
What happens in North Korea stays in North Korea might be the appropriate expression,
but in 2016 there was a leak, and that leak showed us roughly 28 different websites available
in the country.
So, what information was available on those sites?
Let’s take a look and you will certainly agree that we saved the best until last.
10.
Weapons Education There’s a site for a university called Kim
il Sung University.
That doesn’t sound strange at all, universities around the world have websites after all,
but it’s what you see on the landing page as we write this that sets this one apart.
That’s because the first thing you see is something called “Supreme Leader's Activities”
where you’re shown a list of things Kim Jong Un has been up to lately, and it appears
that all his activities are related to either some form of violence or testing weapons.
We clicked on the link “Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un Guides Test-Fire of New-type Large-caliber
Multiple Launch Guided Rocket System.”
Here is a snippet from the text:
“The officials, scientists and technicians were filled with great pride and excitement
for having developed and making the first test-fire of the new-type guided ordnance
rocket, which will play a main role in ground military operations, in a short span of time
according to the strategic policy of artillery modernization for the building of armed forces
set forth at the Seventh Congress of the WPK.”
The rest is all about how great the working classes who helped make this happen are and
how proud everyone is of the country.
It’s straight out of the dictator’s handbook.
In fact, we looked at all of the supreme leader’s activities and each time the text stated how
proud everyone was of the country and how everyone clapped and cheered when they saw
this magnificent guy.
We looked at other links on that page and another good name for the institution could
be the University of Propaganda.
You find phrases such as “Immortal Leadership” and “achievements of President Kim Il Sung”
and “noble intentions.”
You get the picture.
Everything we looked at was along these lines.
9.
Sporting Heroes Again it’s not that weird that people can
look at a website full of sports stars, but it’s what said that makes this website distinctly
North Korean.
The reports are all about how these great sporting heroes give their all for this magnificent
nation.
One young athlete was even described as being a “competent revolutionary talent of a socialist.”
Imagine if a great soccer player scored a goal and was then described in reports as
a revolutionary talent of a democratic capitalist.
Here’s a snippet from one report.
“The Korean athletes who participated in the youth and youth women's competitions won
the gold medal by winning all the teams that competed with high collectivism and physical
skills.”
Good stuff.
It looks like North Korea leads the way in sports.
8.
Spiritual Guidance This one is rather weird both on its face
and in the small print.
It’s all about, well, just how great everything is.
One page tells the story of a woman who celebrated her 100th birthday and the officials turned
up and rejoiced in harmony.
The woman then talked to everyone about the many benefits of the socialist system.
She also said how much she loved the “masters of the country,” Around this time we at
the Infographics Show were becoming slightly concerned about visiting these websites and
who might be looking at our IP address.
We then clicked on a video with the translated title of ‘Hot Hand job’.
It wasn’t what we thought though, it was a very moving song played while a video of
families sat around the TV embracing each other and clapping at the feats of other North
Koreans.
Everyone looked so happy.
It then cuts to men in suits jumping up and down and clapping like a toddler after a gallon
of Coke, and you find out their clapping is directed at the supreme leader who is seen
arm-in-arm with two smiling young girls.
You’ve never seen such joy in people.
Then it all made sense.
The video and the song was all about the great leader shaking hands with people and other
folks clapping their hands.
You’ve got to hand it to those North Koreans, they certainly do a great hand job.
7.
Fake News Of course there had to be a news website and
we had absolutely had to see what was going on in the world through the lens of North
Korean news.
The front page of this site is all about the great supreme leader, are you detecting a
trend yet?
And there’s not a photo without him in it.
But what has he been up to?
Well, he certainly gets around.
It seems he’s been fixing things after a recent typhoon, and also congratulating comrades
around the country for the great work they’ve been doing.
The beloved supreme master in fact has been doing a lot of congratulating of late, and
according to this news site everyone in the country has a lot to be proud of.
All news is good news internally, but then we looked at international news and it looks
like a lot of bad stuff is going on in the world outside of North Korea.
It seems there is growing conflict between the USA and France because the French hate
U.S. big tech.
In a weird change of topic the report then just states, “American wine is worse than
French wine.”
Try telling that to Californian wine growers.
On top of that there is another report that discusses how dangerous it is to drive in
Nigeria and how happy North Korea is with the Spanish Communist Party.
The USA was also blasted for its alleged part in the Hong Kong protests.
Here is a snippet from that story, in translation, “In response to the recent protests by some
Americans in Hong Kong that the protests in Hong Kong were never a matter of internal
China, the spokesman said that the US ignored the basic rules of fact and international
relations.
It was condemned to be seriously interfering with Chinese affairs.”
6.
Blessed Movies What’s going on in the world of cinema in
North Korea?
A country yet to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Film.
Well, there isn’t that much content on this website.
There are no foreign films to speak of and the homegrown movies all seem to feature really
happy people smiling and yep, you got it, clapping.
Some of the movies sound absolutely riveting and we are sure that if Roger Ebert were alive
today he would be giving those movies two big thumbs up.
Just listen to the description of this moving drama called the “Lieutenant Captain Came
Home.”
“Cheol-min, a veteran of the U.S. military, was assigned as the director of the resort
but volunteered to carry out difficult construction projects.
He learns unfamiliar and difficult construction projects one by one and responsibly resolves
the construction of homes for Veterans.”
He then spends the rest of the movie building more houses and making his country safe.
The end.
A classic hero’s tale.
Let’s hope we can get the subtitles for that masterpiece.
We’d also love to find out what life was like for this soldier in the USA .Maybe in
the prequel?
5.
Help the Aged One website is all about old people, and every
link we clicked on had some old folks clapping.
If there’s one thing we learned about North Korea from this little exercise it’s this:
old people are deliriously content in North Korea.
Here’s the opening line from one story:
“The joy of the people singing the disease-free longevity in my homeland, where the full bloom
of the socialist family, blooms day by day.
In the midst of the busy care of the nation's angelic history, Grandma refrained from expressing
gratitude for the passionate love of the beloved Supreme Master Ching-Jin Auto, who provided
birthdays to the ordinary old man.”
Our eyes were filling up with tears just reading these amazing stories about how happy these
old folks were.
Oh, to live in a disease-free land of bloomers.
We then clicked on a video link only to see old people with outlandishly wide grins singing
songs and embracing each other.
4.
Friends One site is Friend.kp and we thought it might
be something similar to Facebook.
It’s not.
It’s mainly about the supreme leader again and how he is friendly.
There is a report about a German woman visiting the leader and he was really friendly to her.
This is a snippet from that report:
“He was so kind to come out to the garden to welcome her.
He asked about her health and gave detailed answers to her questions.
And he also carefully heard her life story.”
Truly a shining example of friendship for all of us.
3.
Go Fund Me This site is weird because it seems quite
normal for North Korea.
There’s no clapping to be found and the supreme leader is barely mentioned.
It’s all about funding for projects and education.
We take our hats off to this site for daring to snub the greatness of North Korea by implying
that some things need to be improved.
2.
Just Books Yep, people read in North Korea just as they
do everywhere else.
But what kind of books are available to the average person in the country.
We had a look on the official North Korean book website.
Keep in mind this is the ONLY place to get your books.
Well, it seems the supreme leader has penned a lot of books so you can read plenty about
him.
You can also find timeless classics such as “Son of the People” and the “SOCIALIST
CONSTITUTION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF KOREA.”
One of our favorites “ANECDOTES OF KIM JONG IL’S LIFE Part 3.”
Part one and two were page turners.
But, if you don’t want to read bios of great leaders and athletes or if you’re uninterested
in trade or the wonderful, magnificent, immortal, fantastic, proud and amazing country of North
Korea then we suggest you shop elsewhere.
We did find one book about another nation, though.
The title of this book is, “US-The Empire of Terrorism.”
1.
North Korean Foodies If you have ever wondered what North Koreans
eat we have the answer for you.
In short they eat the best food in the world.
These food writers waste no time in making some pretty big and extremely believable claims.
Listen to this:
“Our ancestors, who lived on earth from the dawn of human development and pioneered
human civilization, created valuable Korean national heritage that can be proud of the
world in food culture.
Our nation, which has a long history and a splendid culture of half a million years,
has lived for a long time as a single nation with a long line, and has created many national
foods that meet the national characteristics and tastes with wisdom and technology.”
Hmm, so, we know there is some debate as to when the first modern humans arrived.
Was it 50,000 years ago, or was it 100,000 or more?
Well, it seems the western scientists have had it all wrong all along because North Koreans
weren’t just writing on cave walls 500,000 years ago, but they were cultured and cooking
up culinary delights.
So, there you go.
You’ve now learned how North Korea basically kick-started civilization half a million years
ago.
You also now know how terrible the USA is, and how great the North Koreans are at sports,
extending life, and clapping.
We hope it’s been as much of an education for you as it has for us.
Tell us what you think about online life in North Korea in the comments.
Also, be sure to check out our other video Regular Things That Are Illegal In North Korea.
Thanks for watching, and as always, don’t forget to like, share and subscribe.
See you next time.