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North Korea on the web

January 27, 2008 | 10:13 am | Tags: dprk

And now for something completely different. It’s been a couple of months since my last post and I’ve been wondering what to make posts about. Lately I got a bit impressed by tons new official sites by North Korea that appeared lately.

Since they’re completely disorganized, I’ve chosen the best of them and added some info for those who haven’t come across them yet. To make things clear – I don’t support North Korea’s policy and communism at all, actually the point of this post has no deep political meaning, I just find it mysterious to discover things about a country that no one knows much about. So let’s begin with the most important site:

Naenara

Translated into English, Naenara means “My Country”. It’s the major governmental propaganda site including dozens of articles, galleries, media files, press reports, and even an online store (which is weird, they’re running a similar store here). It’s currently available at naenara.kp (kcckp.net domain is still working, though) and as far as I know, it’s one of just two active sites using this .kp TLD. Definitely a must-see for everyone who hasn’t seen any North Korean sites before.

Korea-DPR.com

Another general site, looks disorganized as well. Some pages still use the old black layout, some use a brand new white one that is probably based on a template. What’s pretty “funny” about this is the fact that you have to click two Enter buttons in a row to be able to proceed to the main menu. Reminds me of some Christian record label sites. Make sure you check out this Automobile Industry video, travel gallery, and the Korean Friendship Association anthem. Oh, and I almost forgot, there’s another online store. This one mostly offers products with the Korean Friendship Association logo, nothing special.

Korea Business Site

I guess this site is based on a template but the content is awesome. Especially this page – those PDF files are worth seeing!

Korean Central News Agency

Looks like a pretty old site based in Japan. The news seem to be up-to-date, though. A Korean version is available here.

Official Discussion Forum

When I first spotted this, I was sort of surprised. A discussion forum that seems to be active. Just wonder how much the posts get censored. As for the moderators and administrators, they’re probably all from Korean Friendship Associations all over the world, I wasn’t able to find real Korean people.

Korea Computer Center

“The center of technological innovation in North Korea…” My ass 😀 The page contains links to many sub-sites for centers in various cities. I wonder if the products they advertise really exist, I’m a frayed knot. Anyway, I suggest that you should use IE to view this site, since those “beautiful” layouts get all messed up in other browsers.

Sili Bank

“SiliBank will assure SILI in the communication with the DPRK.” This is sooo awesome! A North Korean bank that is actually based in People’s Republic of China. Sadly, the site is not online anymore but I was able to find some pages in Archive.org. The bank also used to provide the only way to communicate with North Korea using e-mail – the
pricing is funny as well.

Korea Computer Center Europe

There’s nothing much interesting about this this, a German site with common stock photos. I’m just listing it here because it’s one of two sites using the .kp TLD (along with naenara.kp mentioned above).