<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><HTML><BODY BGCOLOR="#ffffff"><FONT BACK="#ffffff" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=3 PTSIZE=12 FAMILY="SERIF" FACE="Times New Roman" LANG="0">At last, a (the?) real North Korean website! See below.<BR>
<BR>
Trouble is, I can't register. I fill out the form, but am<BR>
endlessly asked to fill in my password, even when<BR>
I already did so.<BR>
<BR>
Anyone else have this problem? (Maybe the software<BR>
can smell a capitalist running dog ....)<BR>
<BR>
cheers<BR>
Aidan FC<BR>
<BR>
AIDAN FOSTER-CARTER<BR>
Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Sociology & Modern Korea, Leeds University <BR>
17 Birklands Road, Shipley, West Yorkshire, BD18 3BY, UK <BR>
tel: +44(0) 1274 588586 mobile: +44(0) 7970 741307 <BR>
fax: +44(0) 1274 773663 ISDN: +44(0) 1274 589280<BR>
Email: afostercarter@aol.com website: www.aidanfc.net<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
__________________<BR>
<BR>
CNN.com - North Korea opens pilot Web portal - Jul 15, 2004 <BR>
<BR>
North Korea opens pilot Web portal<BR>
Friday, July 16, 2004 Posted: 0253 GMT (1053 HKT) <BR>
<BR>
SEOUL, South Korea (Reuters) -- Reclusive North Korea has been <BR>
testing its first Web portal for the past month, but so far visitors <BR>
have not been able to access the entertainment, shopping and free <BR>
e-mail facilities it promises.<BR>
The Naenara ("My Country") site at <B>www.kcckp.net</B> is based in <BR>
Germany, and links to information on North Korean politics, tourism <BR>
and trade, along with its official media and "real time" music and <BR>
movies decorate the home page.<BR>
The Web site, available in English and Korean, says it received more <BR>
than 14,000 visitors on Wednesday. But visitors seeking the kind of <BR>
content usually expected of commercial Web portals would have come <BR>
up empty-handed.<BR>
While the ubiquitous martial music of the world's most militarized <BR>
state emanated from the page, links to e-mail service and multimedia <BR>
content were not functioning.<BR>
But visitors who registered could browse the latest news -- from <BR>
June -- published by the state-run Korean Central News Agency <BR>
(KCNA), a mouthpiece of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and his <BR>
communist government.<BR>
KCNA has been available on the Internet for about five years on the <BR>
Japan-based site www.kcna.co.jp. Another North Korean site, <BR>
www.uriminzokkiri.com, publishes Pyongyang views from China.<BR>
The new portal provides the North Korean telephone numbers of state <BR>
trading companies that offer products ranging from "stylish dresses <BR>
of fine workmanship" to ferrous and nonferrous metals.<BR>
The launch follows the start of online gambling run by the North two <BR>
years ago and an online shopping mall in the South that sells goods <BR>
imported from the North.<BR>
Naenara is located on a server based in Germany and was registered <BR>
at the end of May, domain research service Whois.net says.<BR>
Contact telephone numbers provided for the site's Web master are <BR>
based in North Korea, whose leader Kim is believed to be an avid Web <BR>
surfer himself.<BR>
<BR>
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