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Friending Dear Leader: North Korea Joins Facebook
[August 20, 2010]

Friending Dear Leader: North Korea Joins Facebook


TMCnet Contributor
 
Now you can have a new friend on Facebook (News - Alert) (although it may not be anyone you particularly wanted to talk to). An account that opened yesterday on the social networking site under the user name "Uriminzokkiri" appears to belong to North Korea ("uriminzokkiri" means "on our own as a nation" in Korean). The site bears a 1950s-style propaganda poster featuring a drawing of a dubiously youthful Kim Jong-il standing before a picturesque mountain range and the words "North Korea is Best Korea."


According to North Korean sources, the Facebook account is just one element in a triple-pronged venture in Western social networking: the government apparently also has a Twitter account and a YouTube (News - Alert) channel. The goal, it would seem, is to use social networking as a tool to declare the country's supremacy over South Korea, the U.S. and…well, pretty much the rest of the world. As one might have predicted, today the page is full of rather insulting comments and some grim photos, posted by the page's 205 "fans."

One wonders if we'll ever see an exchange like the following:
North Korea: Take our new FB quiz "How Many Ways Do You Love the Dear Leader?"
South Korea: Go suck an egg.
China ♥ C'mon guys, be nice ♥
North Korea: [pouts] We didn't start it.
South Korea: So this is your new propaganda channel? What are you going to do, talk about how horrible it is to live in a country that has food and clothes and stuff?
North Korea: You should talk. You're so scared of us; you arrest people who visit our beautiful country, LOL! http://quippd.com/show/3249/South_Korea_Arrests_Activist_for_Visiting_North_Korea
U.S.: Nice to see you here, North Korea. There was a shortage of clubs on Facebook led by crazy short guys with weird hair.

North Korea: Watch yourself. He's not short, it just looks that way in pictures.

In the meantime, the rest of us will be waiting with bated breath for the YouTube channel. Perhaps clips from a new North Korean reality show called "Dancing With Dear Leader?"

Tracey Schelmetic is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Tracey's articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Patrick Barnard

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