New data has verified that the number of
pro-North Korea sites operating through foreign servers continues to rise.
There are currently 162 such sites, with an additional 1,622 social networking
service [SNS] accounts, all employed to “glorify” the regime.
Han Ki Ho, a member of both the leading
Saenuri Party and National Defense Committee, citing a report compiled from the
Defense Ministry and military and investigation authorities from 2010 to the end of July 2014, announced that the discovery of 162 pro-North
Korea sites and 1,622 SNS accounts with overseas servers. 125 of
these sites and 1,622 of the SNS accounts were blocked from attempting to access South
Korean servers; the remaining 26 shutdown on their own, while 11 are being
closely monitored.
Han noted that despite being blocked, many of these
sites change IP addresses in an effort to gain access to domestic servers in the South. The Defense Ministry and related investigation officials confirmed that over 90% of the SNS
servers are located in China, with others operating from the U.S., Japan, and
Europe.
Meanwhile, 12,000 pro-North postings appear
on the homepages of major South Korean institutions and other comment threads throughout the Internet. The Ministry of Defense discovered and deleted 37,130 such posts between 2012 and August of this year. From January to June of 2014, the Korea
Communications Standards Commission blocked content promulgating the regime and
Juche ideology on 750 Facebook and Twitter accounts thought to be operated by North
Korean cyber agents. This number is
up from 338 last year.
