EVERYBODY Has A Website These Days…
January 30th, 2008
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It seems like any organization, even those which don’t generally have a major PR operation seem to have a web presence. Examples being: The Hells Angels, NAMBLA, The KKK. Of course there’s some question about how “official” some of these are, given that organizations like the Klan generally avoid a well-organized central leadership.
But there is one website I found which I checked out and by all indications is 100% legit and really affiliated with who it represents. The official English Language Website Of the Democratic People’s Republic Of Korea. Which, by the way is about as far from being a “democratic people’s republic” as one can possibly get. To most it’s simply “North Korea.” I checked it out and it does appear to be sanctioned by the North Korean Government and not a joke.
The page is actually hosted in Spain (or at least it traces back through a Spanish ISP) and has been up since at least 2002 if not earlier. According to the US Department of State, Spain is currently the only outside country which maintains diplomatic relations with North Korea. North Korea also reportedly has (at best) limited telecommunications connections to the rest of the world and therefor, it’s actually not surprising that the page tracks back to Spain, as that is likely the only internet link North Korea would consistently have.
I would very much recommend checking out the site. It is not meant to be funny, but it is just the same (in a very dry way.) It is very poorly designed, has a few missing embed graphics and the few subpage which do feature any kind of half-decent interface have very obviously been made from a simple web page template. According to the website’s information:
The Korean Friendship Association (KFA) will regularly organize Business delegations to Pyongyang in collaboration with the Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries of the DPRK Government, providing privileged access and negotiations/meetings with the highest ranking officials.
The KFA being something of an external North Korean diplomatic organization which is run by the North Korean Government.
The page is hard to navigate and generally a pretty bad example of website design. Here are a couple of pages I’d recommend:
Business - Check out the imports and exports listed. Rather limited it seems.
60th Anniversary Foundation – Join the Celebration!
Travel To North Korea – Well, they actually don’t generally let forigners in, but if you apply you might be lucky enough to go on one of their arranged propaganda… I mean cultural exchange tours.
Here’s the tourism page… which is a bit lacking… (actually all the ‘country’ subpage linked to the top drop-down on the left of the main page seem to have some issues) It seems some of them can be found on this page which links to foreign relations and other national issues. Although many of the links, though hosted on the same server, are dead.
But above all else, you need to check out this page and download the “small pdf download” of the 160 page biography of Kim Jong Il, the Dear leader who apparently has produced a major opera, climbed the highest mountain in Korea alone, written great poetry and music, invented new technologies done and other unbelievable things… It’s part of the document library, which seems to only partially work.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 30th, 2008 at 5:41 pm and is filed under History, Misc, Politics, media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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January 30th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
Oh one thing I forgot to add. You may not have noticed but on the 60th anniversary website you can download this computer wallpaper to adorn your desktop: http://www.korea-dpr.com/dprk-60th-foundation/materials/imgkorea.jpg
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January 30th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Of all the slave pens groaning under the heels of a psychotic mad man North Korea is the worst. The U.S. and China should realize by now that this excuse for a country has outlived its usefulness to both of them and quietly make it go away.
I don’t think there is anyone left that would object – certainly not the poor devils living there.
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January 30th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Would have been a better investment than Iraq IMHO. China is starting to get a bit weary of that little wacko. They had been an ally of NK in the past. Now they realize that they are on a winning streak economically and that they are dependent on stability in the region to keep the good thing going. They have sent envoys to try to calm that crazy little man down every time they see him get pissy.
The biggest fear of china is that Kim Jong Il is going to rock the boat in East Asia and start causing trouble. The last thing they want is somebody stirring up the muck in the region. That’s why they keep an eye on the little wacko.
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January 31st, 2008 at 2:30 am
There was a really good documentary about North Korea. National Geographic Explorer, Inside North Korea. These people went into NK with eye doctors on humanitarian work. They brought their cameras (mostly hidden) around with them and they were followed by “minders” the entire time. Crazy place. The cult mentality of the people they interviewed was very interesting and scary.
Definitely worth seeing.
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January 31st, 2008 at 10:13 am
As you can see from the satellite photo, North Korea are regional leaders at controlling light pollution. The Dear Leader bends the electromagnetic waves to his indomitable will. Rah!
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January 31st, 2008 at 10:43 am
Oh yea, China is not happy with the “little wacko.” If he throws a fit and causes a major conflict in the area or even just upsets ocean traffic or causes investors to become weary of the stability of Asia he could throw a chink in their winning streak. That’s the only reason they tolerate him being there is that they want him to keep things cool.
I saw the documentary and Kim Jong Il is seriously a very very disturbed and strange guy.
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January 31st, 2008 at 12:27 pm
The way he treats his people is pretty bad and having nuclear weapons is definitely not cool, but if there is one thing that people of the country can be proud of it is that you can live your life without needing to cause nearly the kind of pollution everyone else does. Look at them versus south Korea. IT IS SICKENING. We need someone who can keep that usage down without being as harsh and militant. THAT would be PERFECT.
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January 31st, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Hi Green4Clean420.
“if there is one thing that people of the country can be proud of it is that you can live your life without needing to cause nearly the kind of pollution everyone else does. Look at them versus south Korea. IT IS SICKENING.”
I think you might be onto something here. What I’d like to see is a serious campaign by environmentalists to demonstrate how a few simple measures such as the North Korean populace is priviledged to pioneer lead to much better outcomes for the environment than their southern neighbours. A detailed comparison of how the two sets of people conduct their lives will, I’m certain, be most instructive to people in showing what can be expected as a result of the Green program.
Finrod.
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January 31st, 2008 at 2:54 pm
What, you missed the e-library??? http://www.korea-dpr.com/library/entrance.htm
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January 31st, 2008 at 7:50 pm
You don’t need food or clean water or medical care or a method of livelihood or sociopolitical stability… nah, as long as you’re not causing any pollution, everything is just fine the way it is.
I honestly hope you’re just trolling and aren’t actually serious.
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February 1st, 2008 at 8:39 am
Hey Green, those South Koreans kick arse at starcraft, so they are okay in my book.
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February 3rd, 2008 at 6:53 am
Unfortunately I can’t find the Dear Leader’s thoughts on Dialectical Sex anywhere on this site. Fortunately, there is a mirror here. NSFW, and definitely not a spoof at all.
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May 5th, 2010 at 6:50 pm
No spam, no joke, we simply really like your green blog and want to help people find it.
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May 5th, 2010 at 9:52 pm
Rueben Gober said:
Cool! They’re only helping to direct people looking for ‘green’ stuff to your site. Excellent.
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