We know they like photoshopping pictures of their army, but what other tech do they have hidden behind its borders?
I’m obsessed with North Korea. I’m obsessed in the most holy-crap-it’s-2013-and-this-country-is-still-totally-blocked-off-from-the-world type of way. How crazy is that? In a day where global society is basically dependent on each other for news, income, food, jobs – everything – North Korea really is the Hermit Kingdom: the country doesn’t participate in the world (apart from consistently threatening to start a nuclear war of course).
I’ve become increasingly interested in North Korea this year, and not just because of Vice’s recent, highly-publicised, Dennis Rodman-centered trip there. Nor is it because of all the blustering, nuclear-based threats from Kim Jong Un in the past few weeks, even though the threat of warfare with this ever-ready military nation is certainly a real one. Their warheads might not be able to hit American shores (from where I am currently writing), but they probably do have the ability to reach more local nations. Sorry Japan.
But what really got me interested was when in late February this year, Associated Press’ Jean Lee Instagrammed the first few photos from inside North Korea, on a North Korean 3G network called Koryolink. There’s another thing to think about – we (the relatively developed world) have been regularly tweeting, Instagramming, Faceblogging etc. across the globe since about 2007, but it took North Korea six more years to allow people to do so.
Cell phones are something we can barely imagine being without now. I began researching this article on a mobile phone (which are now basically pocket computers), but in North Korea mobiles were only introduced in 2002, before being banned just two years later. They made a comeback in 2008, this time with 3G, but before you get too excited about this dramatic forward step, they can still only make and receive calls from within the country. At least we know that Kim Jong-Un has an android-based HTC smartphone (and a penchant for cigarrettes) after this picture was recently released of the baby-faced dictator.
On the topic our supreme leader Kim Jong-un, we also know he’s a Mac guy from a photo released a few days ago of him apparently plotting his attack on that bastion of evil, the United States, in front of a 21-inch iMac. I’m not sure how I feel about being jealous of the dictator’s computer, but that’s a moral dilemma I won’t concern you with at this point…
Public computer usage seems to be varied, with photos showing hilariously old-school technological equipment to new, HP branded computers, though almost all are imported and ‘fixed’ by the government before they are released to the public. It almost goes without saying that the North Korean internet does not include things from outside North Korea, and social media is apparently very basic (read: bulletin board messaging circa 1997). For some real fun, here’s a site that you can use to search inside NK’s internet.
How about military technology? Well, we know they had the capability to get a topsy-turvy satellite into space and spin around for a while, but, it seems that anyone with a big balloon and a GoPro can reach space these days. As far as fighting power goes, ever seen a person just sweep into a yard sale and buy all the old stuff? Well that seems to be North Korea’s modus operandi, particularly Kim Jong-il’s in the post-Cold War era. North Korea now has an air force of around 1500 airplanes ranging from older various Soviet Union and Chinese models to actual biplanes. They have a few hovercrafts, too, although when they released the picture below there were a few raised eyebrows about the authenticity of the image. Seems like Iran aren’t the only country who like photoshopping pictures of their weaponry.
As far as guns go, the Korean People’s Army seems to fancy the classic terrorist’s AK-47. Although one serious place for concern is NK’s radar and anti-aircraft weaponry. While both are rather primitive, they have a lot of ‘em, and that makes an air war a tough proposition.
So North Korea doesn’t have the most advanced of, well, anything really. They’ve got a military straight out of the mid-20th Century, a fledgling internet, and a leader who doesn’t know how to right-click things. But what they do have on their side is numbers, and if history is any example, numbers play a big role in warfare. Perhaps the US should tread carefully.
Lead image via Flickr Creative Commons, Wikimedia Commons
