I hope we are studying these capabilities in detail as someday we will need to be exploiting them.
But I also think this very illustrative of the nature of the regime and its impact on every aspect of the society. Note the priority for the development of its operating system that ensure the names of the Kim leaders are automatically typed slightly larger than the original size on the page. Such a requirement of course adds no value to the operating system. This matters more than the productivity of the system and again illustrates why the north's economy is a failure and it cannot fix its failed policies.
V/R
Dave
9 December 2012 Last updated at 19:27 ET
North Korea: On the net in world's most secretive nation
By Dave Lee
Technology reporter, BBC News
Only select members of society, known as "elites" get to use North Korean internet
What is it like to surf the internet in the most secretive country on Earth? The short answer is - strange, at least by the rest of the world's standards. But as North Koreans begin to put their lives at risk just to connect to the outside world, it could mark a dramatic moment in the country's history.
There's a curious quirk on every official North Korean website. A piece of programming that must be included in each page's code.
Its function is straightforward but important. Whenever leader Kim Jong-un is mentioned, his name is automatically displayed ever so slightly bigger than the text around it. Not by much, but just enough to make it stand out.
It's just one facet of the "internet" in North Korea, a uniquely fascinating place.
The names of Kim Jong-un and former leaders are slightly bigger on North Korean sites
In a country where citizens are intentionally starved of any information other than government propaganda, the internet too is dictated by the needs of the state - but there is an increasing belief that this control is beginning to wane.
"The government can no longer monitor all communications in the country, which it could do before," explains Scott Thomas Bruce, an expert on North Korea who has written extensively about the country.
"That is a very significant development."
(Continued at the link below)
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