Yet the most dire implications for the future of the North Korean media is its pitifully obscure presence in the internet world. At present, internet access in North Korea is restricted to an elite group of 200 or so foreigners living in Pyongyang, and there are only 30 North Korean websites - which are, predictably, all backed by the state. Most of these sites are largely devoted to singing the praises of Kim Jong-Il; but some, such as Naenara show a slightly different slant on North Korean affairs.
Naenara, meaning "my country," is the official North Korean web-portal, and is available in a multitude of languages: English, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, French, German and Arabic, as well as Korean. Naenara features sections on North Korean politics, tourism, arts and foreign trade, and encourages the unification of the two Koreas. By making Naenara available in so many different languages, North Korea has certainly increased its global web presence dramatically. If you were to type "North Korean Foreign Trade" into search engine Google, the site would emerge as the 7th result - suggestive of a reasonably accessible, well linked-to, and possibly actively optimised site. But, true to form, Naenara is restrictive: one Japanese blogger pointed out that it was effectively impossible to get news from the Naenara site in North Korea, even for registered users.Yet North Korean isolation in the internet world may not be a complete product of its own doing. For example, the state has persistently asked ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, to authorise the domain ".kp" for the country - but to no avail. Furthermore, the only country in which Naenara is banned is South Korea, where the state fears that its material will "brainwash" South Korean citizens.
Despite backing only 30 websites, the North Korean state is clearly aware of the global power of the internet in its own country as well as outside it. In 2005 alone, it was estimated that the state trained nearly 600 computer hackers; bizarrely, this is a figure greater than the number of registered internet users in North Korea. But as the use of the internet in North Korea gradually expands, it seems unlikely that the state will go the way of its larger neighbour - and now more increasingly distant ally - China. China's ability to use its status as the world's largest nation as a manipulative tool when launching the state-censored Google China earlier this year is a feat unlikely to be repeated by Kim Jong-Il's regime. A regime under which, despite lucrative trade with China, people still live in abject poverty.
While the North Korean internet base is certainly too miniscule for us to expect the launch of Google North Korea anytime soon, it is certainly an interesting possibility to consider for the perhaps distant future - particularly if North Korea's newfound nuclear status continues to generate such massive interest in the country. Indeed, the opportunities provided by the internet are endless, meaning therefore, that anything can happen.
Who knows, perhaps one day we'll witness the opening of search engine optimisation offices in Pyongyang. After all, it might be a simple case of brand protection but even a communist state needs search exposure.
