Japanese Human Rights Group Launches Spam Fax Campaign Against N. Korea

The Japanese NGO ReACH, which advocates for the return of abducted Japanese citizens and for human rights in North Korea, has assembled a long list of known North Korean fax numbers, which I’ve published here for all the world to see, below the fold. REACH is calling on Japan’s massive community of netizens (and you, too!) to send spam faxes to these numbers, and offers some recommendations to maximize the subversive/disruptive effect if you decide to join the fun:

– Starting with the obvious: the message should be in Korean. I have a limited capacity to translate a few of these.

– Think about how the recipient will perceive what you’re saying. Invective and insults will only reinforce xenophobic programming, and it should go without saying that few North Koreans will appreciate your biting satire. Keep the tone supportive and sympathetic.

– Keep it factual. Hyperbole and fiction are much less persuasive than facts.

– Practical and useful information is more likely to be read.

– Don’t send the same old thing to the same fax a hundred times. Let a hundred flowers bloom.

– In North Korea, it’s illegal to throw away anything with an image of Kim Jong Il or Kim Il Sung. Imagine how confused they’ll be receiving a fax with a picture of Kim Jong Il like this one. While anecdotal information suggests that most North Koreans have little use for Kim Jong Il, there’s still plenty of residual reverence for Kim Il Sung. If I were designing a fax to send, I’d concentrate on His Porcine Majesty as a propaganda foil: health and succession rumors, his opulent lifestyle, and reports of the severity of the famine (residents of Pyongyang may still not realize how bad the famine was in other parts of the country).

– The grand prize in this contest is a return fax, a letter, message, or other verified confirmation that someone is reading your information. If that happens, I’d love to know, but for God’s sake don’t post which numbers fax you back anywhere on the net (if a number is non-working, drop me a line and I’ll take it off the list). In theory, if we can come up with a list of numbers that are actually receiving the information, it would be possible to send regular summaries of news reports to Pyongyang’s samizdat grapevine.

You have to admit that the targeting here is a lot more precise than those leaflet balloons. REACH is asking for your best designs, so feel free to e-mail them to me (see third sidebar) and I’ll forward them along. I’ll post the best ones here.

Below are the known fax numbers. Some of them may already be shut down.
(850: country code / North Korea, 2: city code / Pyongyang, 381: area code)
850-2-381-2100
850-2-381-4007
850-2-381-4010
850-2-381-4020
850-2-381-4021
850-2-381-4031
850-2-381-4033
850-2-381-4034
850-2-381-4035
850-2-381-4041
850-2-381-4042
850-2-381-4043
850-2-381-4047
850-2-381-4050
850-2-381-4051
850-2-381-4056
850-2-381-4060
850-2-381-4066
850-2-381-4067
850-2-381-4071
850-2-381-4074
850-2-381-4075
850-2-381-4080
850-2-381-4083
850-2-381-4096
850-2-381-4098
850-2-381-4150
850-2-381-4316
850-2-381-4377
850-2-381-4405
850-2-381-4407
850-2-381-4408
850-2-381-4411
850-2-381-4412
850-2-381-4413
850-2-381-4418
850-2-381-4422
850-2-381-4426
850-2-381-4431
850-2-381-4432
850-2-381-4435
850-2-381-4440
850-2-381-4440
850-2-381-4443
850-2-381-4444
850-2-381-4445
850-2-381-4446
850-2-381-4448
850-2-381-4449
850-2-381-4451
850-2-381-4454
850-2-381-4461
850-2-381-4462
850-2-381-4464
850-2-381-4467
850-2-381-4470
850-2-381-4474
850-2-381-4475
850-2-381-4476
850-2-381-4477
850-2-381-4479
850-2-381-4482
850-2-381-4488
850-2-381-4489
850-2-381-4489
850-2-381-4490
850-2-381-4493
850-2-381-4494
850-2-381-4495
850-2-381-4498
850-2-381-4502
850-2-381-4505
850-2-381-4506
850-2-381-4507
850-2-381-4508
850-2-381-4517
850-2-381-4525
850-2-381-4526
850-2-381-4527
850-2-381-4528
850-2-381-4531
850-2-381-4531
850-2-381-4533
850-2-381-4534
850-2-381-4536
850-2-381-4538
850-2-381-4542
850-2-381-4543
850-2-381-4546
850-2-381-4548
850-2-381-4549
850-2-381-4551
850-2-381-4558
850-2-381-4560
850-2-381-4563
850-2-381-4565
850-2-381-4567
850-2-381-4569
850-2-381-4574
850-2-381-4576
850-2-381-4581
850-2-381-4585
850-2-381-4592
850-2-381-4597
850-2-381-4603
850-2-381-4606
850-2-381-4607
850-2-381-4608
850-2-381-4611
850-2-381-4615
850-2-381-4617
850-2-381-4618
850-2-381-4619
850-2-381-4621
850-2-381-4621
850-2-381-4621
850-2-381-4622
850-2-381-4623
850-2-381-4624
850-2-381-4626
850-2-381-4627
850-2-381-4629
850-2-381-4632
850-2-381-4633
850-2-381-4637
850-2-381-4642
850-2-381-4644
850-2-381-4646
850-2-381-4647
850-2-381-4648
850-2-381-4651
850-2-381-4652
850-2-381-4652
850-2-381-4652
850-2-381-4657
850-2-381-4660
850-2-381-4663
850-2-381-4665
850-2-381-4668
850-2-381-4670
850-2-381-4672
850-2-381-4674
850-2-381-4676
850-2-381-4677
850-2-381-4679
850-2-381-4685
850-2-381-4687
850-2-381-4688
850-2-381-4691
850-2-381-4692
850-2-381-4695
850-2-381-4707
850-2-381-4709
850-2-381-4712
850-2-381-4715
850-2-381-4715
850-2-381-4718
850-2-381-4720
850-2-381-4722
850-2-381-4723
850-2-381-4726
850-2-381-4728
850-2-381-4732
850-2-381-4734
850-2-381-4737
850-2-381-4745
850-2-381-4747
850-2-381-4748
850-2-381-4750
850-2-381-4755
850-2-381-4757
850-2-381-4759
850-2-381-4760
850-2-381-4765
850-2-381-4770
850-2-381-4771
850-2-381-4772
850-2-381-4774
850-2-381-4777
850-2-381-4783
850-2-381-4785
850-2-381-4788
850-2-381-4793
850-2-381-4795
850-2-381-4799
850-2-381-5274
850-2-381-7607