We were having an interesting conversation the other day between Chinese, South Korean, Taiwanese, French and American friends. We were talking about the Google in China issue, and my South Korean friend said to me that South Koreans can’t access websites (1) with homosexuality, (2) with nudity, (3) based in North Korea.
I understood the first two (not that I agree, I just understand why), but why can’t South Koreans access information about NK? My French friend said it’s like the Cold War was for Americans, information about Russia was highly regulated (I was seven when the Cold War ended, so I don’t know how accurate this is). My French friend was basically saying that it’s a war of ideology between SK and NK, but I see a difference. In Russia, it was an ideological battle between superpowers. The US didn’t want Russian ideology infiltrating its population and causing some sort of shake up. Yet, I don’t see how SKoreans could look at NKorea and say, “Man, that’s what I want, no food, no electricity, children lining up to watch executions, etc.”
There are no websites in North Korea. The nutcases who run the country are so terrified of the Internet that they won’t permit any access at all to it. As far as I know, all of NK’s government websites are hosted in China, and they exist solely for people outside NK to look at. I’d be surprised if South Koreans couldn’t view them.
They can’t even have cellphones in NK, I doubt they have computers and if they have computers I seriously doubt they have Internet. I saw a CNN special where people would smuggle things like cell phones across the border from China to NK, so that relatives that had fled to China could speak to those back in NK. But it all had to be done in secret.
Apparently The NK government tells their citizens they have it good compared to the rest of the world, yet there are food lines, travel is restricted, etc. Some NK citizens are tuning into SK soap operas secretly at night, so they must be realizing their government is lying to them.
One guy put an anti-government message on a bridge or building (forget which) and then fled to China, now he’s a wanted man in NK.
I’m in the US and did a Google search for North Korean websites. There’s an official government one, of course, including a biography of the great leader that I’m going to read when I get home (but that was a .com site), but nothing at all in the North Korean .kp domain, while there are 115 million in the South Korean .kr domain.
There’s no shortage of access to sites with nudity. Don’t know about gay content, but a gay former co-worker reported meeting local partners in chatrooms and such. I’ve been told by students that homosexuality doesn’t exist in Korea, which is nonsense, of course.
I also don’t know about websites in North Korea, but there’s plenty of access to sites about North Korea. Judging from Dewey Finn’s post, our location isn’t the main reason we can’t see sites from above the 38th parallel.
Selected quotes:
“Pyongyang has so far provided average citizens with a walled-off Net in keeping with its ideology of “self-sufficiency.” In 1990 it set up the Korea Computer Center, which built a national “intranet” much like the closed networks of big corporations.”
“Pyongyang lifted a ban on cell phones in late 2002, only to end the experiment this summer, unannounced. Authorities confiscated mobile phones from me and a Nigerian diplomat on arrival, and returned them as we departed. Unterbeck still insists that “North Korea is just ready to take off. Change is really happening.” Of course, just not always for the better.”
The first two are nonsense. I live in SK too and you can access any kind of porno site you want. There are no restrictions on bittorrents or any other filesharing software or blocking of adult conduct websites.
Hard-Core pornography is technically illegal in the Repubic of Korea. So you can’t buy/sell XXX stuff at the local market, all domestic porn shows nothing but female breasts, male butts and a lot of grunting. However there is no restriction on online access.
The government has been known to block specific internet sites that are pro-North-Korea or which the government views as pro-North-Korean propaganda. This refers to any site with such content, not just those located within the DPRK.
Another South Korean chiming in to confirm that nudity/homosexual websites are most definitely not banned in South Korea. Legal domestic porn does blur genitalia (this includes even anime porn), but hard-core porn is far from difficult to obtain… judging from the colorful collection belonging to my brother, that is.
As for homosexuality… it’s certainly less open here than it is in most Western countries, but it’s not illegal.