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Hunting for North Korean Fiber Optic Cables

nkinternet.com

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Re: Hunting for North Korean Fiber Optic Cables

#11

Post by liversage »

My understanding is that there are three mobile networks in North Korea: the normal one used by the citizens (they have smartphones made specifically for North Korea), one used by the government/military and one for tourists (requires a local SIM card only available in a specific hotel in Pyongyang).

The last one is connected to the internet and this is why you can see (or at least before the pandemic could see) Instagram posts from North Korea.

I have no idea if this information is still or ever was completely true though.

There's a somewhat dated but very interesting AMA on Reddit by an American teaching computer science in Pyongyang:

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1ucl11/iama_american_...

Reading about the internet knowledge possessed by North Korean students, I'm always surprised how they supposedly also manage to be some of the most cunning and evil actors when it comes to hacking.

Re: Hunting for North Korean Fiber Optic Cables

#13

Post by tehjoker »

liversage wrote: post #11

My understanding is that there are three mobile networks in North Korea: the normal one used by the citizens (they have smartphones made specifically for North Korea), one used by the government/military and one for tourists (requires a local SIM card only available in a specific hotel in Pyongyang). The last one is connected to the internet and this is why you can see (or at least before the pandemic could see) Inst…

[flagged]

Re: Hunting for North Korean Fiber Optic Cables

#15

Post by bigfishrunning »

tehjoker wrote: post #13
liversage wrote: post #11

My understanding is that there are three mobile networks in North Korea: the normal one used by the citizens (they have smartphones made specifically for North Korea), one used by the government/military and one for tourists (requires a local SIM card only available in a specific hotel in Pyongyang). The last one is connected to the internet and this is why you can see (or at least before the pandemic could see) Inst…

[flagged]

How cunning and evil it is that America funded the internet and then allowed it to spread around the world.

If you're worried about "absolute control over digital systems", notice how many standards get published describing how those digital systems work -- you're welcome to reimplement them if you'd like more control.

Re: Hunting for North Korean Fiber Optic Cables

#16

Post by tehjoker »

bigfishrunning wrote: post #15
tehjoker wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

How cunning and evil it is that America funded the internet and then allowed it to spread around the world. If you're worried about "absolute control over digital systems", notice how many standards get published describing how those digital systems work -- you're welcome to reimplement them if you'd like more control.

“allowed” is doing a hell of a lot of work for monopoly capitalism backed by us state diplomacy

you may want to read this book about the military history of the internet originating in counter insurgency strategy in vietnam.

https://www.amazon.com/Surveillance-Valley-Military-History-...

another way to look at american internet penetration is as “radio free asia dot com”

Re: Hunting for North Korean Fiber Optic Cables

#17

Post by lawlessone »

bigfishrunning wrote: post #15
tehjoker wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

How cunning and evil it is that America funded the internet and then allowed it to spread around the world. If you're worried about "absolute control over digital systems", notice how many standards get published describing how those digital systems work -- you're welcome to reimplement them if you'd like more control.

The Roman Empire built lots of roads wherever they went and the British Empire built lots of rail networks.

Re: Hunting for North Korean Fiber Optic Cables

#18

Post by lukan »

monerozcash wrote: post #5
metadat wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Impressive sleuthing! It's interesting to discover the reality that packet routing ends up following political affiliations. I didn't know North Korea only has 1,024 IPv4 addresses. Do you know why so few IPs? How did they get them?

DPRK can certainly get however many IP addresses they want, DPRK just doesn't have that much infrastructure that they want externally accessible. As far as I know, end-user traffic from within North Korea usually does not originate from those few IP addresses. Or at least not visibly so, they might be connecting to a proxy from a DPRK IP address.

"DPRK can certainly get however many IP addresses they want"

IP4 is quite limited as far as I know and not given out freely since a long time, or what do you mean here?

Re: Hunting for North Korean Fiber Optic Cables

#19

Post by NedF »

liversage wrote: post #11

My understanding is that there are three mobile networks in North Korea: the normal one used by the citizens (they have smartphones made specifically for North Korea), one used by the government/military and one for tourists (requires a local SIM card only available in a specific hotel in Pyongyang). The last one is connected to the internet and this is why you can see (or at least before the pandemic could see) Inst…

[dead]

Re: Hunting for North Korean Fiber Optic Cables

#20

Post by nephihaha »

lawlessone wrote: post #17
bigfishrunning wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How cunning and evil it is that America funded the internet and then allowed it to spread around the world. If you're worried about "absolute control over digital systems", notice how many standards get published describing how those digital systems work -- you're welcome to reimplement them if you'd like more control.

The Roman Empire built lots of roads wherever they went and the British Empire built lots of rail networks.

The Roman Empire merely improved roads in many places. Gaul already had a road system, and the Greek and Egyptian spheres did too.
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