Kim Jong Il, Defender of Free Speech

North Korea said on Friday the South Korean government was violating the public’s basic right to information by blocking access to Web sites sympathetic to the North.

South Korea has denied access to more than 30 Web sites that it has designated “pro-North Korea” since 2004, including the North’s official KCNA news agency’s Web service and sites operated outside.

“This is a fascist action against democracy and human rights as it infringes upon the South Koreans’ freedom of speech and deprives them of even their right to enjoy the civilization offered by the IT age,” the North’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper said.

“The above-said actions are as rude as blindfolding people’s eyes and stopping their ears and mouths,” Rodong Sinmun said in a commentary carried by KCNA news agency.  [link]

The reporters did their very best to stifle the irony:

Most North Koreans have limited or no access to computers let alone the Internet, refugees from the North and human rights activists in Seoul have said.

South Korea is one of the world’s most wired countries. Three-quarters of the population have access to the Internet.

For what it’s worth, I think it should be perfectly legal for South Koreans to read information both from and about North Korea.  I also favor the use of non-permissive means to get “unofficial” information into North Korea, although I suspect that the North Korean attitude toward free speech might be less principled in that case.