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In 1984 moment, N. Korea deletes near entirety of news archives
NKNews ^ | December 16, 2013 | Chad O’Carroll

Posted on 12/16/2013 6:33:28 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster

In 1984 moment, N. Korea deletes near entirety of news archives

In striking development, North Korean media deletes near-entirity of its article archives

by Chad O’Carroll , December 16, 2013

North Korean state media outlet the Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) has deleted over 35,000 articles from its on-line archives.

The deletion, the biggest ever article removal in KCNA’s history, means that with the exception of a small number of articles about Kim Jong Un, the digital record of state-approved news currently only reaches back to October 2013 on KCNA’s North Korea (.kp) hosted website.

“There were 35,000 articles dated September 2013 or earlier on KCNA in Korean. If they’re leaving the odd one in, it’s still a kill ratio of 98-99%,” said Frank Feinstein, a New Zealand based programmer that tracks North Korea’s online media output for NK News.

In addition to the 35,000 original Korean language articles, translations in English, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese were all deleted from the archives, bringing the total to nearly 100,000 missing articles.

Article identifiers previously used to locate KCNA articles showed up “NULL” results when verified on the kcna.kp domain on Monday, while searches only returned results from October 01, 2013 onwards.

null-results

In addition, Feinstein said that approximately 20,000 articles had also been removed from the archives of the Rodong Sinmun, North Korea’s state newspaper.

“This is a a calculated thing they’ve done. Across all sites, it means the order most likely came from above each individual agency.

“This is what makes it so interesting – it’s a true North Korean purge, not just a KCNA one,” Feinstein explained.

(Excerpt) Read more at nknews.org ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 1984; censorship; communism; media; nkorea; northkorea
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To: TigerLikesRooster

21 posted on 12/16/2013 7:34:33 AM PST by JoeProBono (SOME IMAGES MAY BE DISTURBING VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED;-{)
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To: nuconvert; txhurl; SevenofNine

Ping.


22 posted on 12/16/2013 7:35:15 AM PST by Army Air Corps (Four Fried Chickens and a Coke)
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To: Viennacon

I think little Kim is being challenged and he’s trying to consolidate his hold. Hopefully they can overthrow him.


23 posted on 12/16/2013 7:40:20 AM PST by Rennes Templar (If you like your disease, you can keep it.)
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To: Rennes Templar

Who would dare challenge him? The military? He did purge a lot of the generals. If North Korea does collapse, its ripe for evangelization from Asia’s missionaries in the south.


24 posted on 12/16/2013 7:42:55 AM PST by Viennacon
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To: TigerLikesRooster

Not to worry. It will be back soon, in a revised, sanitized, new-and-improved version ... once Dear Leader decides how things “really” happened.


25 posted on 12/16/2013 7:46:24 AM PST by IronJack
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To: TigerLikesRooster

No problem, the communists have been teaching us to “live in the present.”


26 posted on 12/16/2013 7:52:54 AM PST by Carry_Okie (0-Care IS Medicaid; they'll pull a sheet over your head and take everything you own to pay for it.)
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To: struggle

Or Cubby’s nuts...


27 posted on 12/16/2013 8:24:05 AM PST by GOPJ ("Remember who the real enemy is... ")
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To: Rennes Templar

Hopefully,not until after Dennis Rodman holds his next basketball clinic.


28 posted on 12/16/2013 8:26:38 AM PST by Minutemen ("It's a Religion of Peace")
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To: moovova
just in case I ever learn to read Korean...

Hopefully we all won't have a need to learn Korean.

29 posted on 12/16/2013 8:29:37 AM PST by C210N (When people fear government there is tyranny; when government fears people there is liberty)
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To: TigerLikesRooster
"Hmmm. You can do that?"


30 posted on 12/16/2013 8:59:43 AM PST by Paine in the Neck (Socialism consumes everything)
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To: TigerLikesRooster

Here they go again. They are going to rewrite them all?

lol


31 posted on 12/16/2013 9:19:44 AM PST by GeronL (Extra Large Cheesy Over-Stuffed Hobbit)
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To: nuconvert

NK state media is kind of new to the online thing


32 posted on 12/16/2013 9:21:42 AM PST by GeronL (Extra Large Cheesy Over-Stuffed Hobbit)
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To: TigerLikesRooster

Yeah something up very Stanlist of Chia Chub


33 posted on 12/16/2013 9:53:58 AM PST by SevenofNine (We are Freepers, all your media bases belong to us ,resistance is futile)
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To: C210N; GeronL; TigerLikesRooster; AmericanInTokyo
32 posted on 12/16/2013 11:21:42 AM by GeronL: “NK state media is kind of new to the online thing”

Not sure I agree here. While lack of awareness or interest in the internet or international public opinion was probably accurate for former leaders of the “Hermit Kingdom,” the current North Korean dictator studied in the West and reports indicate he's a regular user of the web.

It's almost impossible to say anything with certainty about North Korea, but we have good reason to assume this “delete button” order came straight from the top, or at least with Kim Jong Un’s advance consent.

Another factor is that while people overseas who are web-savvy can use things like Google archives and the Wayback Machine, most people in North Korea can't do things like that unless they have special access privileges. It wouldn't surprise me if this “delete all” decision was designed to keep what passes for North Korean “intelligentsia” from researching the history of Kim Jong Un’s executed uncle.

I'd appreciate hearing from Tiger Likes Rooster and American in Tokyo on their thoughts about motives.

29 posted on 12/16/2013 10:29:37 AM by C210N: “Hopefully we all won't have a need to learn Korean.”

Trust me. It's not as easy as it looks.

And it doesn't look easy.

But Hangul does have an advantage over English — the spelling reflects current vernacular pronunciation, not the late medieval way our English spelling would say words like “knight” and “night” should be pronounced. English orthography was “fossilized” centuries ago and does not reflect subsequent developments in speech.

American English (thanks to Noah Webster) did modernize some spellings such as “plough” to “plow.” But the spelling of many words did not change and probably won't change for several more generations. Look, for example, at the near-universal resistance a generation ago to changing the spelling of “through” to “thru” when the Chicago Sun-Times and other media tried to “update” spellings to reflect current English pronunciation.

34 posted on 12/16/2013 9:56:44 AM PST by darrellmaurina
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To: darrellmaurina
29 posted on 12/16/2013 10:29:37 AM by C210N: “Hopefully we all won't have a need to learn Korean.”

Trust me. It's not as easy as it looks.

Well, thinking positively, don't have to learn a lot of Korean... just some common phrases:

"YOU! Pick the rice in the pattys over there..."

"Where do you want me to hang up the portrait of our Dear Leader?"

35 posted on 12/16/2013 10:06:39 AM PST by C210N (When people fear government there is tyranny; when government fears people there is liberty)
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To: C210N
LOL!

Personally, I find “yes, yaobo” (honey) to be the most useful Korean phrase.

But I think that applies to any husbands anywhere regardless of language ;-)

36 posted on 12/16/2013 10:27:36 AM PST by darrellmaurina
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To: TigerLikesRooster
By deleting the past history of North Korea, Kim Jong-un seeks to control its future. This is Orwell's fiction novel “1984” implemented in real life.
37 posted on 12/16/2013 10:28:32 AM PST by MasterGunner01
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To: JoeProBono

The big shiny gray thing on the left must be a North Korean Dalek.


38 posted on 12/16/2013 2:02:20 PM PST by Vroomfondel
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