Wednesday, August 18, 2010
(photo: Elijah Wallechinsky)
Even the one of the world’s most reclusive, anti-Western governments can’t stay away from popular social networking websites. In recent weeks North Korea has established YouTube and Twitter accounts as part of its propaganda campaigns against South Korea and the United States.
Using the YouTube channel “uriminzokkiri,” the name of a website operated by the North Korean Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, Communist officials have made fun of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (“minister in a skirt”) and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates (“war maniac”) and portrayed South Korean leaders as servants of the U.S.
The country’s Twitter account uses the name uriminzok, or “our nation.”
North and South Korea went 10 years without resorting to psychological warfare. Then in May of this year South Korea resumed its propaganda radio broadcasts after the North torpedoed one of its warships, killing 46 sailors.
The YouTube and Twitter campaigns are seen as North Korea’s retaliation against South Korea’s radio broadcasts.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
North Korea Takes to Twitter and YouTube (by Choe Sang-Hun, New York Times)
Uriminzokkiri’s Channel (YouTube)
Uriminzok (Twitter)
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