This isn’t encouraging, (from Time) but I guess not entirely unexpected:
Our group, Western journalists granted a rare visit to the North by Kim Jong Il’s secretive regime, would get no closer to this supposedly showcase example of economic reform. The government’s reluctance to show off anything that smacked of capitalism was symptomatic of an ominous new mood in Pyongyang. Recent baby steps toward reform and greater openness kindled a glimmer of hope that the North could be coaxed out of isolation. Now Kim, perhaps fearful that private enterprise and greater contact with the outside world would undermine his power, seems to have reversed course. Earlier this month, Pyongyang banned sales of grain in the country’s recently legalized farmers’ markets and announced a return to the old socialist system of government-controlled rice handouts. Private grain markets were just a stop-gap measure necessitated by a few bad harvests, according to the North Korean official in charge of our group, Choe Jong Hun. “Now we have a good harvest and we are able to feed ourselves,” said Choe. “There is no need to sell rice in the markets.”
Pyongyang’s politics are opaque even to long-time foreign residents. But the government’s attempt to wrest control of grain sales from private traders is widely seen as an attempt to reassert political control. One of the few slivers of freedom granted in recent years–the right to trade produce and household goods in the officially sanctioned farmers’ markets–has already engendered a modest change in mindset. But there have been indicators of greater repression since last year, when the government outlawed cell phones for the general public shortly after setting up a national network. This year, officials at state-run trading companies were ordered to stop sending e-mails to China and to use faxes instead, apparently because the authorities believe faxes are easier to monitor, according to Kang Chol Hwan, a defector and journalist living in Seoul. Now the regime is pressuring foreign aid workers to leave. “The country seems to be closing,” says a Western diplomat. “It is not going in the right direction.”
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Something from the TIME that I found fascinating: that DPRK government prohibitted NK officials from emailing business partners in China and forced them to use faxes. That implies that there was a time that NK officials had “free” access to email!!!! FREE ACCESS! If I was an enterprising SKorean NIS agent think of the things that we could do!
Which makes me think again, that if they should ban the use of emails, it makes me ponder, maybe DPRK IT technology, despite news from before about training supposed “hackers” must far far lag behind the area of internet security. Again makes me think, I wonder what the turn over rate is for DPRK IT technicians who has access to the country’s email server and web connections for KJI. You figure, such professionals MUST know english, and they would have access to pretty much anything KJI wants to read. Furthermore, we already know, at least from the article, they use microsoft software i.e. Power Point–which makes me think, they probably use Winows which makes me further ponder: That they must be plagued with viruses!!! Imagine this! At this very moment, Windows spam zombies are sending you advertisements to increase your member(your’s or your beloved’s) or refinance their mortgage, all from Pyong Yang. Wow. The possibilities~~~
Wow. this is kinda exciting. I mean even faxes are exciting. According to anecdotes, George Soros gave away free fax machines in eastern europe to foment democracy movements.
I wonder how much stuff CIA keeps mum about these stuff. Hmm.
Other things that makes me ponder, I wonder how many of KJI’s “personal” computer technician (i.e. the guy that reboots his laptop when his computer freezes) he sent to gulags.