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Three years in North Korea as a foreigner (2021)

mydiplomaticlife.com

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Re: Three years in North Korea as a foreigner (2021)

#111

Post by lolinder »

mathsmath wrote: post #101
V__ wrote: post #53

I'll preface this by saying that I can't support this with a source, so take it with a grain of salt. An acquaintance of mine knew someone who worked in that German embassy. Apparently, the extreme isolation of North Korea also made it extremely difficult to have any kind of opsec inside the embassy. Since anything could only be brought in through diplomatic pouches it created an attack vector of one. A few days afte…

Even in the US, nothing is technically stopping you from walking into a SCIF with a phone most of the time. We used the honor system. I would almost automatically assume that any SCIF in a foreign country was compromised to some degree.

Which would completely invalidate the entire purpose of the SCIF, no? Unless it exists to feed fake info to the locals?

Re: Three years in North Korea as a foreigner (2021)

#112

Post by dmix »

Gunax wrote: post #98
V__ wrote: post #53

I'll preface this by saying that I can't support this with a source, so take it with a grain of salt. An acquaintance of mine knew someone who worked in that German embassy. Apparently, the extreme isolation of North Korea also made it extremely difficult to have any kind of opsec inside the embassy. Since anything could only be brought in through diplomatic pouches it created an attack vector of one. A few days afte…

Sorry I really want to understand this comment. Can you help? > Since anything could only be brought in through diplomatic pouches it created an attack vector of one. Are you presenting that as a good or bad thing? If there is only one attack vector, that makes it easier to defend against, right? > One official let something slip, which meant a bug had somehow gotten into the scif. You mean the North Korean or German…

The NK official probably mentioned something that was only said in the SCIF

And I'm guessing the diplomatic pouches aren't fully in the custody of the german gov at all times there? idk

Re: Three years in North Korea as a foreigner (2021)

#113

Post by bell-cot »

lolinder wrote: post #111
mathsmath wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even in the US, nothing is technically stopping you from walking into a SCIF with a phone most of the time. We used the honor system. I would almost automatically assume that any SCIF in a foreign country was compromised to some degree.

Which would completely invalidate the entire purpose of the SCIF, no? Unless it exists to feed fake info to the locals?

It's government. Security Theater/"Look, we're trying" is usually more important than reality.

Re: Three years in North Korea as a foreigner (2021)

#115

Post by teractiveodular »

waterTanuki wrote: post #110

> There were a handful of shops that catered for foreigners. All transactions had to be in Euros as possession of local currency by foreigners was forbidden This stood out to me in the article, as most countries incentivize foreign visitors to use local currencies to boost its strength. However, NK seems to have long ago come to terms it's currency will never hold value, so perhaps they instill this rule to boost the…

It's all about getting their hands on foreign currency. Similar systems were ubiquitous across Eastern Europe, with the DDR's Intershop probably the best known: you could even take the subway across to Friedrichstraße in East Berlin and shop at the platform without needing to go through passport control.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intershop

Re: Three years in North Korea as a foreigner (2021)

#116

Post by Salgat »

RGamma wrote: post #68
V__ wrote: post #53

I'll preface this by saying that I can't support this with a source, so take it with a grain of salt. An acquaintance of mine knew someone who worked in that German embassy. Apparently, the extreme isolation of North Korea also made it extremely difficult to have any kind of opsec inside the embassy. Since anything could only be brought in through diplomatic pouches it created an attack vector of one. A few days afte…

There's a kajillion ways to extract info via analog hole from a well-known room. Unless this room has counter-measures (that are unlikely to be accepted by an authoritarian government) this ain't surprising really.

I wonder if a trusted laptop with VR goggles and a VPN would be sufficient to transmit and read most information. For added security, use an external modified keyboard that is not vulnerable to being tapped.

Re: Three years in North Korea as a foreigner (2021)

#117

Post by omoikane »

darajava wrote: post #85

Really annoying and distracting that each instance of “North Korea” is hyperlinked to the same article.

I worked around it by opening up my browser's inspector and add "color:black" and "text-decoration:none" to all the "a" styles, which made them less distracting.

An easier way would be to copy&paste all the text to some other place, but there are some inline images that I thought might be worth seeing.

Re: Three years in North Korea as a foreigner (2021)

#118

Post by 77pt77 »

bagels wrote: post #64
V__ wrote: post #53

I'll preface this by saying that I can't support this with a source, so take it with a grain of salt. An acquaintance of mine knew someone who worked in that German embassy. Apparently, the extreme isolation of North Korea also made it extremely difficult to have any kind of opsec inside the embassy. Since anything could only be brought in through diplomatic pouches it created an attack vector of one. A few days afte…

scif = sensitive compartmented information facility A room that is supposed to be highly secure with secure communication channels where it is safe to handle or transmit secret information.

A real life "cone of silence"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cone_of_Silence_%28Get_Smart%2...

Re: Three years in North Korea as a foreigner (2021)

#119

Post by 77pt77 »

mathsmath wrote: post #101
V__ wrote: post #53

I'll preface this by saying that I can't support this with a source, so take it with a grain of salt. An acquaintance of mine knew someone who worked in that German embassy. Apparently, the extreme isolation of North Korea also made it extremely difficult to have any kind of opsec inside the embassy. Since anything could only be brought in through diplomatic pouches it created an attack vector of one. A few days afte…

Even in the US, nothing is technically stopping you from walking into a SCIF with a phone most of the time. We used the honor system. I would almost automatically assume that any SCIF in a foreign country was compromised to some degree.

> nothing is technically stopping you from walking into a SCIF with a phone most of the time

That is ridiculous.

I've been to multiple embassies as a nobody and no electronics were allowed and this was strictly enforced.

Re: Three years in North Korea as a foreigner (2021)

#120

Post by 77pt77 »

netsharc wrote: post #21
notdonspaulding wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They did not have internet. From the article: > You were in a country that really was sealed off from the rest of the world. No internet or social media. All press and TV (one channel) dedicated not for news but solely for the glorification of the Leader. That is the Kim dynasty and the regime.

Obviously the average citizen don't have Internet, but an embassy without Internet (most probably through satellite) is unthinkable, they need to be able to talk to their home government. But if we go back 20 years (others have said this is written in the early 2000's), satellite communication was probably worse than 28.8k modems and really expensive, so yeah, it could've been there but only for official and not pers…

> But if we go back 20 years (others have said this is written in the early 2000's), satellite communication was probably worse than 28.8k modems

I take it you are under 30 years old.

You've got all your timings wrong.

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