# So, apparently the Internet is out for North Korea **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 23, 2014, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-the-internet-is-out-for-north-korea/707974 "2014-12-23T00:34:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-the-internet-is-out-for-north-korea/707974/1 "2014-12-23T00:34:49Z")
I’m watching CNN, and the entire country is without internet access? Is “the US responding appropriately” as Obama promised? Hmmm… ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-the-internet-is-out-for-north-korea/707974/2 "2014-12-23T00:36:53Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > I’m watching CNN, and the entire country is without internet access? Business as usual. How many Internet users do you think they have? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-the-internet-is-out-for-north-korea/707974/3 "2014-12-23T00:37:51Z")
‘If you can’t play nice on the Internet, you shan’t be allowed to have it!’ ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-the-internet-is-out-for-north-korea/707974/4 "2014-12-23T00:40:32Z")
Since Internet access is supposedly forbidden for ordinary North Koreans, all an outage means is that Dear Tubby Leader can’t visit his favorite porn sites. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-the-internet-is-out-for-north-korea/707974/5 "2014-12-23T00:45:09Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Dear Tubby Leader can’t visit his favorite porn sites. Oh, someone should definitely do a video with a look-alike actor ‘flogging the capitalist dog’ while he looks at barnyard porn. ---
**Author:** ![Sarabellum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarabellum/32/3492_2.png) [@Sarabellum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarabellum)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-the-internet-is-out-for-north-korea/707974/6 "2014-12-23T00:56:34Z")
The (real) internet is ALWAYS out for those poor guys. It seems a little tit-for-tat for the US to play hacker and take down their internet, doesn’t it? Especially when so few of their citizens actually have access to it. ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-the-internet-is-out-for-north-korea/707974/7 "2014-12-23T00:58:32Z")
Isn’t that the idea? It will hurt only the elites. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-the-internet-is-out-for-north-korea/707974/8 "2014-12-23T01:09:31Z")
Their internet access goes entirely through China. So China may be throwing the US a bone here. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-the-internet-is-out-for-north-korea/707974/9 "2014-12-23T01:28:03Z")
How big a player is Sony in the Chinese market? China may be doing this entirely out of their own economic self-interest. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-the-internet-is-out-for-north-korea/707974/10 "2014-12-23T01:59:05Z")
> [@Askance](#): > > Their internet access goes entirely through China. So China may be throwing the US a bone here. [Dr. Evil] China is trowing us a freaking bone here! [/Dr. Evil] ---
**Author:** ![tapu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@tapu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tapu)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-the-internet-is-out-for-north-korea/707974/11 "2014-12-23T03:53:42Z")
We’ve done it. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-the-internet-is-out-for-north-korea/707974/12 "2014-12-23T04:13:18Z")
I read an article today discussing how this really affects North Korea. Now I can’t find the article again, so no cite. But here are some salient points as best I recall: Few people in NK have internet access. The “common people” are only allowed to own a computer with permission from the gov’t, and all computers must be registered with the police. Probably not many could afford one anyway. The only “internet” that most North Koreans know about (and some may think it’s the whole internet) is actually a government-run intranet with just a few web sites, all of them government-run or -sponsored or -approved and mostly propaganda stuff. There are a few “internet” cafes in Pyongyang where people can surf that stuff. But people aren’t even allowed to travel without gov’t permissions, so people outside Pyongyang can’t even go there. There are just a few classes of people who are allowed true access to the outside internet: (1) The people who work the propaganda sites. (2) The government-sponsored international cyberhacker division, thought to be some 3000 of the country’s best and brightest. (3) The insider elites, who get all kinds of luxuries that are unknown to the hoi polloi. So knocking their external net connections off-line really only affects these elite effete few. ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-the-internet-is-out-for-north-korea/707974/13 "2014-12-23T04:25:11Z")
I saw that article. Here ya go: [Yes, North Korea has the internet. Here’s what it looks like.](http://www.vox.com/2014/12/22/7435625/north-korea-internet) ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-the-internet-is-out-for-north-korea/707974/14 "2014-12-23T04:25:53Z")
North Korea’s Internet access was only out for nine hours. About typical for a Comcast user. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-the-internet-is-out-for-north-korea/707974/15 "2014-12-23T06:08:29Z")
> [@a35362](#): > > I saw that article. Here ya go: > > [Yes, North Korea has the internet. Here’s what it looks like.](http://www.vox.com/2014/12/22/7435625/north-korea-internet) Thanks! Yes, that’s the very article I saw and referred to above. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-the-internet-is-out-for-north-korea/707974/16 "2014-12-23T06:11:54Z")
> [@Duckster](#): > > North Korea’s Internet access was only out for nine hours. > > About typical for a Comcast user. I’ll bet the customer service is better in NK. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-the-internet-is-out-for-north-korea/707974/17 "2014-12-23T07:44:20Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Business as usual. How many Internet users do you think they have? Well maybe our response should be to give them MORE internet. ---
**Author:** ![fridolph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/85f322/32.png) [@fridolph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fridolph)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-the-internet-is-out-for-north-korea/707974/18 "2014-12-23T08:08:27Z")
They were gone temporarily but not forever. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-the-internet-is-out-for-north-korea/707974/19 "2014-12-23T08:59:27Z")
> [@White SIFL](#): > > Well maybe our response should be to give them MORE internet. No. We cannot give the North Korean people _anything_. The closest you could do is give things to the assholes who have kept them enslaved for decades and hope they stuff themselves to the point where even _they_ would deign to give their leftovers to the North Korean people. In case you haven’t figured it out, that’s a terrible plan. ---
**Author:** ![phall0106](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phall0106/32/5934_2.png) [@phall0106](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phall0106)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-the-internet-is-out-for-north-korea/707974/20 "2014-12-23T13:36:05Z")
Ah, someone probably just unplugged the modem. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-the-internet-is-out-for-north-korea/707974.md?page=2)