North Korea To Enable Mobile Internet Access — For Visitors Only 114
An anonymous reader writes "The BBC reports that the reclusive country of North Korea is planning to enable 3G mobile internet access. It will not be available to the country's estimated one million mobile users, however. The service will be available only to international visitors, who have been allowed to bring their own mobile devices into the country since January of this year. The decision comes shortly after Google Chairman Eric Schmidt said enabling 3G internet in the country would be 'very easy' during his recent visit there. Currently, North Korean citizens can only access a small number of state-controlled sites. Might this decision open the door for some of them to surreptitiously access the open net?"
Spying... (Score:5, Insightful)
Almost certainly just to troll for information... Like taking a laptop to China...
Open internet in NK (Score:3, Insightful)
Might this decision open the door for some of them to surreptitiously access the open net?
Hahahahahaha! Yeah. Sure. Good plan if those foreigners want to get an up close and personal tour of the labor camps.
Things may be changing ... (Score:4, Insightful)
It's possible that we're witnessing a gradual sea-change in NK's politics.
Kim Jong-un was pretty much obliged to make a show of strength upon taking office - launching "satellites" and testing "nukes". This ensures that he doesn't get overthrown by his own people, or "liberated" by you-know-who.
Kim Junior has experienced the outside world, and he may well believe that it is in everybody's best interests, even his, to gradually open it up to his people. Time will tell.
Re:Spying... (Score:4, Insightful)
Surely using something like Tor or a VPN would prevent...
Not if they block these things. And using encryption might just get your phone/tablet/whatever removed from your custody...
Re:Things may be changing ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Or maybe he really thinks that NK could be a resort for the world, and is as loony as Dad.
Re:Spying... (Score:4, Insightful)
I would. When was the last time N Korea arrested visitors saying they were CIA spies? On the contrary, N Korea is very welcoming to foreigners, including Americans. It seems they want to impress them, not arrest them. This 3G internet for visitors seems another step in the same direction.
It's their own people they persecute. And the South Koreans, who they consider to be traitors to a unified Korea.
Re:Spying... (Score:2, Insightful)
Amen. There's also been lots of talk recently about China hacking into American sites. It's a terrible thing. However America doing cyber intelligence is obviously a good thing. Hypocrites they are.