From declan@well.comWed Aug 7 11:48:06 1996 Date: Wed, 7 Aug 1996 00:01:56 -0500 From: Declan McCullagh To: fight-censorship@vorlon.mit.edu Subject: North Korea mocks Seoul's net-censorship efforts Usually, tracking international net-censorship efforts is depressing. However, this UPI report on the pissing match between N. Korea and S. Korea made me laugh aloud. The North Koreans are posturing brilliantly -- truly trying to force Seoul's hand, and using the Net to do it. -Declan --- TOKYO, Aug. 6 (UPI) -- North Korea's official news agency blasted South Korea Tuesday for allegedly blocking its citizens' access to a new Internet page sponsored by Pyongyang, a report monitored in Tokyo said. ``What they (Seoul) should block is not the North Korean Page but the U.S. channel dealing with methods of murder and robbery and pornographic scenes too shameful to watch,'' the Korean Central News Agency dispatch said. The KCNA report quoted researcher Kim Hyong-sok of the Information and Culture Center of North Korea as saying the history of the Internet has seen no example of people being punished for monitoring certain sites. ``Such punishment would cause bitter condemnation from the international community,'' said Kim. Bristling with slogans about the ``great leader comrade Kim Il-sung,'' the Internet page has upset South Korean leaders, said KCNA, to the point of having access to the site banned. ``The puppet Agency for National Security Planning and Prosecution officially asked the Internet service organ in South Korea to block the channel,'' said the KCNA report. The North Korean mouthpiece said the officials in Seoul should not ``trouble themselves'' because they do not have the equipment to block the Internet page anyway. [...]