Digital Age, Internet, and North Korea

By E. H.

Tags: Authoritarian control, Digital Age, Freedom., Internet, Limiting Internet Access, North Korea

Digital Age, Internet, and North Korea

The relationships between internet and North Korea illustrate both politics and social movements in the digital age while the North Korea regime faces the dilemma of internet because the power of the internet may threaten their regimes by exposing citizens to information from outside. The Korea Journal of Defense Analysis asserts that the evolution of the internet has a potential to bring negative social effects and, more importantly, to pose a threat to the political stability of the regime that makes North Korea hesitant to open the internet. (Ko, Lee, and Jang 279) The basis of North Korea’s authoritarian regime, Juche Ideology, controls internet access among North Korean citizens. (Chen and Lee 469) The development of Juche Ideology has become the regime’s tool of social management, in which the ideology builds man’s consciousness. Therefore, when the Juche Ideology builds North Korea’s internet, North Korean citizens will be soaked unconsciously in the regime’s control.

In terms of authoritarian control, Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig classifies two categories to examine whether the authoritarian regimes convey either ‘Perfect control’ or ‘Effective control’. (Lessig 57) The notion of Lessig’s argument is that a regime may implement perfect control by simply prohibiting public access to the internet or only allowing limited access to a closely monitored intranet. The core issue of Lessig’s explanation supports the status of North Korean’s internet. “Up to now, North Korea has implemented ‘perfect control’ of the internet by denying public access.” (Chen, Ko, and Lee 656) And people in North Korea and the North Korean regime is missing out a significant part of the internet. As Chen argues, the internet can bring economic gains to a country, and it can cause political destabilization by enabling economic and political information to flow freely, beyond the government’s control. (Chen 202) In other words, once North Korea frees citizens to use the internet without any control, then there is a possibility of political destabilization also gaining economic growth to the North Korea regime.

Based on these analyses, the restriction of North Korea’s internet comes from the authoritarian control and distorts the essence of the internet. (Kim 201) “The biggest reason for restricting…is the regime’s political concerns about the destabilizing effects an entire digital economic strategy might very well have on society and thus on the regime.” (Kim 201) Considering the internet as a new digital literature, then this new technology is used as a tool for the freedom of accessing the literature. (Miller 1) The internet, the power of literature, exposes citizens to information from outside that threats North Korea’s regime. (Ko 281) And that is reason why North Korea’s regime is terrified to open the internet.

The notion of internet being a literature also threatens in China’s regime according to Rebecca MacKinno’s Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom. “The internet enables ordinary Chinese people to speak truth to power and pursue justice in unprecedented ways. At the same time, Chinese internet users have a manipulated and distorted view of their own country as well as of the broader world.” (MacKinno 32) Even the Chinese government initiates what the internet could promote among the population. Lee and Hwang argue that part of the internet brings democratization to the regime. “Bringing internet democratization to North Korean regime takes measures to restrict internet use among the North Korean population.” (Lee and Hwang 76) And Bae suggests that the result of restrict internet use among the North Korean population brings enclosed and private sector to the North Korean population. “The biggest stumbling block is the restriction on the shipment of strategic materials to North Korea.” (Bae 71) In fact, the lack of communication in North Korea among the population causes another hindrance to North Koreans exchange information and cooperation between people. (Bae 71) Therefore, North Korean citizens have been unable to communicate with other side of world to obtain information.

The strength of the internet is to address injustice at the local and personal level, expanding the public discourse and enabling people to speak out on a greater range of issues. “Information about violations of human rights and other forms of oppression will be increasingly conveyed to the outside world by the internet, helping mobilize external political forces on behalf of the oppressed.” (Ferdinand 12) This feature will become even more important as the internet’s significant strategy to threat authoritarian regimes. Expectedly, North Korea does not have enough capital to make such investments, and the country needs to seek external assistance. (Lee and Hwang 84) And yet, this opportunity is to open for more information, people, and the world.

Word count: 767

Work Cited

Bae, Seong-In. “North Korea’s Policy Shift Toward the IT Industry and Inter-Korean

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Chen, Cheng., Kyungmin Ko., and Ji-Yong Lee. “North Korea’s Internet Strategy and its

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Chen, Cheng. and Ji Young Lee. ‘Making Sense of North Korea: “National Stalinism” in

Comparative Historical Perspective.’ Communist and Post-Communist Studies

40 (2007): 459-75. Print.

Ferdinand, Peter. “The Internet, Democracy, and Democratization.” Democratization

7.1 (2007): 1-17. Print.

Kim, Yoo Hyang. “North Korea’s Cyberpath.” Asian Perspective 28.3 (2004): 191-

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Ko, Kyungmin., Heejin Lee., and Seungkwon Jang. “The Internet Dilemma and Control

Policy: Political and Economic Implications of the Internet in North Korea.” The

Korea Journal of Defense Analysis. Seoul: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group

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Lee, Hee Jin., and Jaeho Hwang. “Research Report: ICT Development in North Korea:

Changes and Challenges.” Information Technologies and International

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Lessig, L. Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace. New York: Basic Books, 1999. Print.

MacKinnon, Rebecca. Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet

Freedom. New York: Basic Books, 2012. Print.

Miller, Daniel., and Don Slater. The Internet: An Ethnographic Approach. Oxford: Berg,

2000. Print.

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