RFA: N. Korea tells overseas trade reps not to use the internet

In our latest of edition of North Korea Perestroika Watch, Radio Free Asia, citing identified sources speaking on condition of anonymity, reports that Pyongyang has instructed its overseas money-men to stop using the internet. The regime is even threatening to seize their work and personal laptaps to enforce the order. The trade workers tell RFA that the order, which even includes the use of e-mail, is impeding their ability to do their jobs and earn foreign currency.

A source living in China along the border with North Korea said the order was issued verbally by senior officials in Pyongyang recently. It is causing great inconvenience to the trade officials, most of whom are based in China with others living in Europe, Russia, and Africa, the source said.

“The order discouraging trade workers abroad from using the Internet by the North Korean government is actually a warning to not [disseminate] outside information,” said the source, who is linked to trading of goods with North Korea. “Trade workers abroad are used to contacting the North Korean authorities at home by email,” the source said. [Radio Free Asia]

According to the report, most of the North Koreans overseas save enough to buy laptops, which they then use to access South Korean web sites. Presumably, many of these people understand enough English to all kinds of sites, including this one. Which could mean I’m going to stop getting all those hits from Cambodia, Singapore, Malaysia, Tanzania, and Ethiopia.

If the report is accurate — and it seems like something that could be confirmed through multiple sources — then it suggests that the regime must have enough fear of the internet’s subversive power to incur some economic harm from the imposition of this inefficiency.

The regime has gone so far as asking trade workers to communicate by fax, presuming anyone else still has a fax machine.

The U.N. Panel of Experts recently printed documents showing that North Korean trading companies used e-mail with .silibank domains to facilitate the weapons transactions with Cuba that were uncovered by the seizure of the Chong Chon Gang last year. Years ago, Sili Bank was the false-dawn perestroika sighting of the week when it set up a pay-for-message e-mail system for foreigners. Curiously, and unlike many other North Korean banks, Sili Bank does not have a SWIFT number, suggesting that if it really does operate as a bank, it doesn’t operate internationally.

Personally, it’s hard for me to imagine that this order will last much longer than North Korea’s ban of the U.S. dollar, or South Korean clothing. It will be a huge hassle for a few weeks, after which all those affected will have that much less respect for the state’s authority.