North Korea launches digital PR campaign
The hermit state of North Korea is used to making headlines by launching missiles but its latest launch, an official Twitter account, is an attempt to counter international enmity toward the war mongering communist state.
Using the Twitter account @uriminzok – Korean for “our people” the Pyongyang based feed broadcasts tweets proclaiming unabashed propaganda to some 3,800 followers.
These see the North Korean authorities denounce allegations of their involvement in the sinking of a South Korean naval vessel and links to speeches made by the regimes “dear leader”, Kim Jong-il.
The sub par quality of this output hasn’t impressed Professor Hazel Smith, North Korea expert at Cranfield University, she told the Guardian: “They’re going to – at a propaganda level – give out a stock, old fashioned almost farcical interpretation of the reality.”
This isn't the North Korean government's first foray onto the internet, last month the authoritarian regime opened a Youtube account, used to host news clips from state media.