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Three Things To Read from November 2025
This month covers the fallout from foreign radio shutdowns, how North Korea’s internet connections work, and the possible arrival of spam text messages in the DPRK.
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What to make of the “North Korean Life” TikTok channel
A new social media account purporting to be from North Korea almost certainly isn’t. The “North Korean Life” channel appeared on TikTok over the weekend and quickly amassed 121,000 followers. At the time of writing, it had collected more than 2 million likes and 33 million views. The channel currently has 17 videos and claims…
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Google at the Grand People’s Study House
The availability of Internet access at the Grand People’s Study House in Pyongyang has been known for many years. Tourists to the site have reported seeing it many times and Eric Schmidt, founder of Google, and his colleagues saw North Koreans accessing Google and the Cornell University websites when they visited in 2013, according to…
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North Korean university links with foreign lecturers for live Internet seminars
Singapore-based Choson Exchange recently concluded a series of seminars with a university in Pyongyang that included two sessions conducted live over the Internet. The seminars are believed to be among the first to involve a live link between a North Korean university and lecturers outside of the country. Titled “Global Service Innovation,” the six-lecture course taught…
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North Korean stamps website appears
With only a couple of days left before the end of 2020, North Korea has launched its latest website on the global Internet. The Korea Stamp site is operated by the country’s national stamp issuer to sell North Korean stamps to collectors worldwide. The site incudes a catalog of several thousand stamps dating back to…
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Two interesting new Twitter accounts
Two new Twitter accounts have drawn the interest of North Korea watchers as they claim to be personally-run accounts by North Koreans that originate from Pyongyang. If true, they represent the first time individual North Koreans have had accounts on Twitter, but are they legit? It’s difficult to conclusively tell without access to the kind…
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North Korea’s Foreign Propaganda Takes a Step Towards Modernity
One of North Korea’s most popular YouTube channels has quietly removed video documentaries that idolize the life of Kim Il Sung, the father of the modern North Korean state. The surprising move—once considered unthinkable inside the country—is the latest step in an evolving strategy that is bringing North Korea’s overseas propaganda efforts into the 21st…
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Ministry of Public Health Launches a Website
North Korea’s Ministry of Public Health has opened a website on the global Internet. The site, at www.moph.gov.kp, is fairly basic in its content and was first reported by Yonhap News. It’s impossible to tell when the site first appeared. While articles on the site are dated from April 2019, it’s relatively trival to back-date…
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More YouTube channels deleted, DPRK Today unavailable
It’s been a rough couple of weeks for North Korean propaganda on the Internet. In early-January, YouTube deleted several accounts that carried largely unedited material from Korean Central Television, and this week the website of DPRK Today, which is one of the country’s major Internet propaganda sites, has been offline. It’s unclear if the two…
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Microsoft grabs domain names used by suspected North Korean hackers
Microsoft has taken control of 50 Internet domain names used by hackers to trick people into divulging their user names and passwords and to plant malware on their machines. The hackers are suspected of being linked to North Korean groups, the company said on Monday. It grabbed domain names such as “office365-us[.]org” and “pw-change[.]com” as…
