Very helpful of the Russians
But at the same time, you can bet they'll be logging every packet going down that wire. If I had North Korea on my doorstep I'd want to know exactly who's speaking to them.
Friends close and all that.
North Korea's very limited Internet has, for the second time in its brief history, obtained a redundant connection to the outside world. Dyn Research and North Korea specialists 38 North went public with the existence of the new link on October 1. Dyn's Doug Madory and 38 North's Martyn Williams spotted route announcements …
North Korean official propaganda is apparently that although North Korea ain't exactly paradise, full of booming economic goodness and consumer yummies, the rest of the world is a howling void of chaos, poverty and exploitation by evil capitalist overlords.
So the last thing we need to do to break that propaganda is to allow the North Korean people access to The Register's forums...
And if they ever see the comments on Youtube, they'll probably feel totally justified in nuking us!
and no mention of that other 'Dear Leader' who tweets to the world his contradictory thoughts...
Thankfully, I refuse to listen to the rantings of both deluded leaders. There is sod all I can do about it if one of them decides to go Nuke so why worry about it... Just get on with life and enjoy it while you can coz after JC becomes PM none of us will have anything to smile about.
Will JC or BOJO be the next PM ?
Well JC seems well entrenched with Momentum's Gestapo brigades making sure his position can't be challenged from within, whereas BOJO seems to be working hard to ensure that he demonstrates in the round his total unsuitability for anything other than after dinner speaking.
The last thing the Conservative party need is another clueless, out-of-touch, rich Etonian twat, but Paddy Power are offering 4:1 for BOJO, against (roughly) 8:1 for Davis, Hammond, Rudd and Rees Mogg.(although personally I think Rees Mogg's shot himself in the foot over his personal beliefs that are reactionary even by Tory party standards)..
Not sure you could do much with a Pi where sole internet access is via a state ISP with one (now two) connections to the wider world. Even if the locals could figure out what to do with them the government almost certainly has firewalls preventing access to pretty much everything.
If we were going to chuck things over the fence huge quantities of food and good booze would probably be more readily appreciated.
Alternatively, even some LW radios (+headphones to avoid the giveway sound) might do the job.
Good idea that man! Get them all listening to Test Match Special. The civilising power of cricket.
It's a shame that Henry Blofeld has retired, as I'm sure he's the perfect man to talk anyone round after a lifetime of a dictatorship's brain-washing.
Although, as they don't have access to the internet (or even Wisden), we could just play them old recordings. So they could hear Johnners and Arlott. Admittedly there'd be some Fred Trueman to add a bit of dour Yorkshire misery, but you can't have everything.
1) Most North Koreans realise the propaganda they are fed is a load of crap. https://www.quora.com/Do-North-Koreans-believe-the-propaganda-the-government-tells-them-or-do-they-just-pretend-to/answer/Jieun-Baek
2) They already get food aid from the USA. North Korea spins it as the great leader has so much power, he's forced the evil enemy into providing for them. https://www.pri.org/stories/2011-02-12/does-north-korea-deserve-aid
The TransTelekom company is a subsidiary of the Russian Railways company.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TransTelekom
And the owner of the Russian Railways company is the Russian Government.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Railways
Both China and Russia don't want to establish a precedent by letting North Korea have nuclear weapons. Because then Ukraine and Taiwan might want to get nuclear weapons too.
But they also don't want USA and its allies to take over North Korea and surround them both even more in military terms. That's why they will only go half-way against North Korea. And they'll do whatever it takes to help North Korea survive.
They have an internal net which uses private IP-Adresses instead of DNS because, obviously, they are easier to remember than some latin transliteration.
There's Internet for foreign professors which are invited into the country, but it's unclear who else gets access to it.
There's actually a talk about it:
https://media.ccc.de/v/31c3_-_6253_-_en_-_saal_2_-_201412292115_-_computer_science_in_the_dprk_-_will_scott
BTW, has anybody heard the news that Li Jong-nui succeeds Kim Jong-un?
http://www.der-postillon.com/2017/10/li-jong-nui.html
As a periodic Foreign Guest Worker in the DPRK I work in 'high tech' areas.
The 'internal' InterNet is just for lower class people who are wealthy enough to own computers. There are no external links. Guaranteed.
The 'external' access to the InterNet as we know it is tightly controlled, slow and seemingly monitored by live bodies rather than just computers. There are computers in the facilities where I work which have external InterNet connection but access is controlled by the head of the facility and a 'political officer' along with many locks and keys.
Long-time FGW (Foreign Guest Workers) have dual SIM cell handsets that allow connection to either the internal cell network or to the Foreign Tourist network that permits international calls as well as calls to other Foreigners in the country. Areas close to the Chinese border (defined by a river) can get illegal but spotty access to Chinese networks (using Chinese SIMs).
A few FGW have skysat telephone units which have been inveigled in and are used extremely discretely! The customs guys look for the distinctive antennae which, fortunately, can be removed.