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A Closer Look at North Korea’s Ullim Tablet

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Re: A Closer Look at North Korea’s Ullim Tablet

#141

Post by linkmotif »

IslaDeEncanta wrote: post #33
linkmotif wrote: post #9

The one good, albeit tragic, thing about the existence of North Korea is that it serves as a constant reminder of what society can become if we're not vigilant about educating each generation about the dangers of certain ideologies and modes of social organization.

The government of North Korea is one of the two puppet dictatorships established in the Korean peninsula after World War II. It was the will of the Korean people to establish a socialist democracy, not a Juche dictatorship, but in 1946 the USSR and USA decided that what the Korean people wanted was the least important concern. The point is that it wasn't the ideology of the Korean people that mattered, it was the cla…

That's a good point. Relevant.

Re: A Closer Look at North Korea’s Ullim Tablet

#142

Post by PerfectDlite »

sleepingeights wrote: post #34
Cieplak wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-us-war-crime-nor...

These people are insane. > And if North Korea ever does change, if the Kim family were overthrown or were to voluntarily loosen its chokehold on information, a U.S. apology for the bombing could help dispel 65 years of hate. Consider the response of white americans in the US after the Imperial Japanese bombed a military force in Pearl Harbor, with almost zero civilian casualties. It quickly became common sentiment in…

> The US response was to carpet bomb Japanese cities full of civilians, carpet bomb foreign cities held by Japan holding civilians and citizens of foreign nations, etc... then to top it off, they felt fully justified to drop two nuclear bombs on two cities full of civilians in Japan to teach East-Asia a lesson.

Looks like your perception of history is... a little bit skewed.

Re: A Closer Look at North Korea’s Ullim Tablet

#143

Post by PerfectDlite »

quirkafleeg wrote: post #124
krapp wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The Japanese has plenty of opportunities to surrender but they kept fighting and fighting and fighting. It's odd how this is portrayed as a negative aspect of Japan's militarism, when the Allies were fighting the same war with the same attitude.

Particularly when it's not even true. The Japanese wanted to surrender long before the Bomb was dropped, on condition that the Emperor remain in place. The US insisted on unconditional surrender, prolonging the fighting and resulting in the atom bomb attacks, then ended up accepting the Japanese condition anyway.

> then ended up accepting the Japanese condition anyway

What?? Japan was forced to accept Allies' condition.

Re: A Closer Look at North Korea’s Ullim Tablet

#144

Post by PerfectDlite »

briandear wrote: post #110
fit2rule wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its only a different level because of the amount of control the NSA has over the technological infrastructure, and the degree of force that can be brought to bear - through multiple independent factions of the US military-industrial infrastructure - upon those whom the establishment deem, through surveillance, to be un-savoury. You probably haven't been paying attention, but the US Gov't make dissidents disappear all…

Are we really comparing the DPRK with the US? This thread has jumped the shark. Anyone in the US could be a dissident -- it's called the first amendment. Unless you are from the People's Republic of Fantasia, there's a good chance your country isn't a shining example of freedom either. But, it seems that the fashion on HN is to complain about the US at every opportunity -- even within an article about North Korea. Th…

> fashion on HN is to complain about the US at every opportunity -- even within an article about North Korea

See "Whataboutism"

Re: A Closer Look at North Korea’s Ullim Tablet

#145

Post by AriaMinaei »

fit2rule wrote: post #93
AriaMinaei wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Japanese civilians at the time weren't really innocent. The whole country was working for the war effort, mainly to kill other Asian people. Wow, this is sounding terrifyingly similar to how suicide bombers justify their targeting of civilians. It's sad to see how easy it is for people who didn't grow up under the dogma of fundamentalist religion can still come to this way of thinking. My friend, I implore you to t…

From whom do governments gain power? (Hint: its not banks..)

That's over-simplification on a monumental scale.

Governments and societies aren't 1-1 mappings of each other. You shouldn't mistake one as the other. And even if you do, it still doesn't take much thinking to ask: What about children?

Re: A Closer Look at North Korea’s Ullim Tablet

#146

Post by Veratyr »

ioulian wrote: post #65
fluxem wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, basically Android? Except, you don't get shot in the back. With Android, it automatically syncs Contacts and photos to the "Cloud", unless you disable it. But, you cannot do it 100%, because it's turn on by default when you first sign in. Also, it's not a secret that Google logs your locations history.

I don't fully understand that this comment is downvoted. He has a point there. We are all being tracked, just see your history [1] on the google website. It tracks the websites you've visited, the video's you've watched, music I've played, things I've searched, App's I've used (Camera for example), directions I've searched (google maps), ads I've seen, cards in my feed (google now), my location history (actually very…

He has a point but "So, basically Android?" is a bit over the top.

Also note that unlike North Korean tablets, your own link has the "Delete Activity By" and "Activity Controls" tabs that allow you to remove collected data or disable its ongoing collection.

Google gives you at least some measure of control, North Korea does not. As such I don't think these are really comparable.

Re: A Closer Look at North Korea’s Ullim Tablet

#147

Post by willstrafach »

cyphar wrote: post #61
lucaspiller wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think about, the NSA, GCHQ, etc probably run similar software on their own devices to monitor employees and be able to trace back where any leaks came from. I wouldn't be surprised if there is a commercial company that sells this type of software.

> I wouldn't be surprised if there is a commercial company that sells this type of software. BlueCoat. They're called BlueCoat. As an aside, a subdivision of Intel actually runs the internet filters for some middle eastern country (due to some chain of acquisitions). Isn't that great.

BlueCoat is used in private industry for security / DLP, certainly, but IC agencies have their own comprehensive systems in place to ensure sensitive data access is highly controlled and audited.

Re: A Closer Look at North Korea’s Ullim Tablet

#148

Post by willstrafach »

lucaspiller wrote: post #57
abalashov wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do wonder where they source the talent and expertise with these platforms necessary to pull something like this off. I understand that's kind of a naive question—any functional state has sufficient resources to solve such problems for itself—but one does wonder. I can only assume there was extensive Chinese help. They definitely have the critical mass of engineering ecosystem for that sort of endeavour.

If you think about, the NSA, GCHQ, etc probably run similar software on their own devices to monitor employees and be able to trace back where any leaks came from. I wouldn't be surprised if there is a commercial company that sells this type of software.

It would probably be a massive scandal if they were not protecting their endpoints and networks in any way they feasibly could, due to the sensitivity of the information being handled.

Re: A Closer Look at North Korea’s Ullim Tablet

#149

Post by willstrafach »

SXX wrote: post #76
raulk wrote: post #68

The North Korean developers who worked on this must be privileged beings with access to the open Internet. I can't imagine developing such a complex system without documentation and references. Maybe they even hang out in Stack Overflow...

There is good chance it's actually developed by developers seating somewhere in Bay Area working for some VC-funded company with inconspicuous name. After all there is a lot of commercial surveillance software that sold to authoritarian regimes. Of course that doesn't mean someone work directly with NK.

Would current sanctions really not prevent that?

Re: A Closer Look at North Korea’s Ullim Tablet

#150

Post by willstrafach »

raulk wrote: post #68

The North Korean developers who worked on this must be privileged beings with access to the open Internet. I can't imagine developing such a complex system without documentation and references. Maybe they even hang out in Stack Overflow...

The university in their capital, which teaches CS, allegedly has access to the open internet via China (although it is worth noting that they are only likely to allow access for "elites" there such as children of Party members).
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