Since Kim Jong-Un took control of North Korea he has made it very clear that he wants to be very isolated from the rest of the world. He has done this by banning the use of internet and social media. This is becoming a problem now because other countries are looking into the lives of citizens of North Korea and they are finding more than Kim Jong-un is taking away human rights and abusing their citizens. The reason that this is not acceptable by a world leader is that he is stripping citizens of their God-given rights and not allowing them to think for themselves.
Events such as this will lead to wars if not stopped soon, Countries are prepared to start wars if North Korea will not give back human rights such as freedom of speech and the right to move without permission. North Korea’s internet ban is becoming so strong that almost all outside contact is gone. This incapability will lead to a huge gap in how citizens of North Korea see the world compared to how everyone else can see the world, this will lead into future wars, by the lack of similarities.Many articles have been written over how the internet is in North Korea ever since it has become popular over the world. The evidence is coming from Claire Bradley from “whoishostingthis.com” and also Eric Talmadge from “The Guardian”.
From the writer, Bradley wrote “ Most North Koreans are banned from using the internet as we know it. The authorities control practically all information, and penalties for dissent are severe” what Broadley is saying is that North Korea is fully restricted from the internet and whatever the citizens to see on the internet has been looked over by the government and changed if needed before the citizens could even see it. Broadley is claiming that it’s not a surprise that North Korea has a tight hold on what is on their internet. She says this isn’t a surprise due to the citizens not being able to do simple things from “home-brewed alcohol to sarcasm”. The reason she includes this is that it helps signal that North Korea is very strict when it comes to what their citizens can and cannot do. A problem with how much North Korea is censoring is that is limiting how much the people can form their own opinions.
Another writer named Eric Talmadge from “The Guardian” wrote about how North Korea has blocked Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube. Talmadge states in the very beginning of his article that North Korea has blocked multiple social media websites such as youtube, twitter, and facebook. In addition to this he Talmadge also states that North Korea has blocked South Korean websites. The reason he opens up his article with this sentence is so that reader can get an early sense of what is going in his article. Throughout his article, he mentions that a very small percentage of the citizens in North Korea can use the internet and that the internet that is seen is very government friendly and protected. This ban is described as a restriction that will make it more difficult to even it has been to post up to date info on how they’re doing and how life in North Korea is under Kim Jong-Un’s control.
Both of the articles by Broadley and Talmadge suggest that the ban on the internet and social media will lead to a totally different viewpoint and totally different understanding of the world. The ban on the internet is so strict that you can and will be arrested for years. Also, the ban is changing the way that the people live their lives they are no longer having dreams like they used to and are just accepting that they can’t live their lives freely. North Korea is able to maintain who uses the internet by using a security called Red star 3.0 according to Jerreat Red Star is capable of maintaining over 5,000 web pages and promotes propaganda.
Later in her article, she said that the citizens that get caught using the internet of South Korea these people are sent to a re-learning this could take up to ten years. A commentary on (Radio Free Asia) by Andrei Lankov is about how the North Korean censorship is not only blinding the people but also it’s blinding the rulers of the country. This is best said at the very end of the commentary its describes that a county with a censorship on citizens is also a censorship on the government and leaders of the country it’s running. Both Lankov and Jerreat make arguments in their articles/commentaries that North Korea’s censorship is out of control and is only hurting the country if not stopped soon.
Now while multiple people have been writing about how bad the ban is and how it’s affecting its citizens. Even after a countless number of articles coming out in this subject The Telegraph, and The guardian of wrote stories on how the ban isn’t what everyone makes it out to be and that the people writing the stories can’t be trusted. The Guardian released an article by Anna Broinowski questioning the credibleness of the facts of a censorship. Broinowski says that people can’t trust what they read because there have been multiple articles about Kim Jong-Un that have been false so why it’s very hard to trust many sources regarding North Korea. Matthew Sparkes is a writer for The Telegraph.
In his article he states Kim Jong-Un is seen using an Apple Mac. While also saying that North Koreans are big fans of Apple products but later on his says “ As Apple complies with trade embargoes that forbid the sale of products to the country, the possible source of the computer became quite the talking point.” Sparkes. The reason that this is important to the article is that it conducts itself. Questions pop into readers minds such as “how are they fans if they cant get thee products?”, and “is the picture real?” the picture is in question a lot because no one can explain how he got this computer when Apple won’t sell their products to this country. No solutions are proposed in either of the articles denying the censorships rumors being real or not.
Countries are looking deeper into if the censorship is real or a rumor and they have found a lot more than what they were expecting to see. Not only did the found out that the ban is real but they also have found out that North Korea is abusing their citizens. The U.S. Department of State released a report on what is going in North Korea. In the report, it goes on to say that the government has taken away all independent media and that any stories by the media are government friendly and have been reviewed by the government. The reason this is a big deal is that what their saying is that the North Korean government has taken away the people’s freedom of speech and has made it so they have no way of voicing their own opinions to a large number of people.
In an article form The Human Rights Watch it says that since 2015 the U.N. has been talking about how North Korea has been abusing their citizens and taking away their rights. According to them, the U.N has started a way to start condemning North Korea’s abuses of their citizens. Both articles hint to countries part of the U.N is set to start wars against North Korea if they don’t stop abusing their citizens.
