Restricted Access

Imagine this, you wake up in the morning and you cannot access any sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, and most information on Google, which you once previously could. Only after many weeks, do you find out that your country’s government blocked the satellite signals for news spreading sites.

This discussion continues to be surrounded by tension with many world powers facing many tough decisions; therefore, continuing with this blogs theme of discussing many controversial issues, which have arose throughout the past few weeks. As a follow up to my last civic issue blog post on the North Korean test missile launched a few weeks ago, I will talk about the controversy surrounding the new advancement in the North Korean missile scares.

As of 3:18 AM Eastern Time according to an article publishedby ABC News, North Korea has officially announced that it has blocked Facebook, Twitter, and South Korean websites “in a move underscoring its concern for the spread of online information. 

According to another ABC News article, “North Korea fired a short-range missile into the sea and tried to jam GPS navigation signals in South Korea on Friday (April 1^st)”. This was only “hours after U.S South Korean and Japanese leaders pledged to work closer together to prevent North Korea from advancing its nuclear and missile programs”.

Many North Koreans do not have the luxury of Internet Access. Usually when North Koreans use the “Internet”, they use is a “sealed-off, government-sanctioned intranet”. However, “foreigners had previously been able to surf the Web with almost no overt restriction, though most likely with behind-the-scenes monitoring of their Internet activities”.

The missile launch and consequent web-jamming would make it more difficult and albeit impossible for “foreign residents in North Korea to post real-time information about the country to the outside world, and will further limit the ability of North Koreans with Internet access to view information about their country posted elsewhere”.

Last blog post, the potential that a block signal could happen was mentioned. However, at that time, we did not know if any further missile action would be taken and if there were action, what type of consequence that action would hold. 

Now, we know that North Korean leadership (Kim Jong Un) wants to exercise their power in increasing shows of force. 

However, is North Korea really the only bad guy, when playing around with Internet censorship?

The ABC News article referred to above mentions that North Korea’s now new restrictions mirror the restrictions of the Beijing area of China, and some restrictions mirror South Korea.

South Korea is deep within the Internet web and interests, yet they ban North Korean websites and government-deemed adult content.

We must keep in mind that while the control of what we see and what we can use on the Internet may be appalling because we are United States citizens [and dwellers] and have the right to this content, the rest of the world does not have rights in place that keep them from losing their privilege of seeing internet content. What is our right truly is their privilege. 

I think what is most striking in the fact that there are already so many restrictions on North Koreans, unlike their South Korean counterparts, that the implementation of these now new and stricter standards is well past excessive.

In one of my passion blog posts, I mentioned the sociocultural divide, Air Force Lt. General Weinstein mentioned in his speech to Air Force ROTC cadets, that North Korea and South Korea have been experiencing. He said that back in the 1970s and 80s many South Koreans still had hope that North Korea would join them into one country again. Now, the General mentioned, South Korea is very patriotic for their side of Korea and does not see the rejoining of the countries in the future.

The general mentioned that with this divide and the suppression of the North Koreans by Kim Jong Un, there have been language changes and their have been extensive cultural changes.

My question is do you think that the greater restriction of the Internet will create a greater divide of culture and understanding for the North Koreans in the future?