Last week, North Korean news agency Uriminzokkiri, one of the country's few media outlets to write in English for a foreign audience, set up a Twitter account (@uriminzok). The Web site of the agency, whose name means "Our Nation," is the closest thing North Korea has to an official home page. The site carries the link to its Twitter stream in the upper right-hand corner. The account has nearly 5,000 followers (4,903, to be exact) as of this writing.
Uriminzokkiri's first Tweet said, in Korean, that "our nation" now has a Twitter account. Subsequent Tweets contained links to historical North Korean documents and news items from Uriminzokkiri.
Notoriously, North Korea is one of the world’s most secretive regimes, but lately, it has been embracing social media. Last month, Uriminzokkiri launched a YouTube channel, which currently contains 101 videos. However, the North Korean government is hardly being open or transparent; much of the content posted on these accounts is pure propaganda, and interaction with other users is minimal.
Several Twitter accounts purporting to be from North Korea have already been set up, including one (@kimjongil) that claims to be the official account of the country's maligned leader Kim Jong Il. The account drew headlines when it was first launched, but its authenticity is in question, largely because its messages position Kim as an object of ridicule. Another account was launched in the name of the Korea Central News Agency, the country's official news service, but it was believed to be run by a third party and has snce been suspended.
The irony of all this was summed up best by Financial Post blogger Jameson Berkow:
Paradox, defined as follows. North Korea, easily among the [external] most oppressive regimes in modern human history, has officially taken membership in one of the most free and uncensored venues for mass self-expression ever to exist.
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