Yes, the internet does exist in North Korea -- it's just that most users are trapped within the country's virtual confines, unable to access most websites outside their ISP's walled garden. According to BitTorrent monitor ScanEye, though, some do get to bypass the country's security and end up downloading various TV shows, as well as (to nobody's surprise) American and Japanese porn. Aside from the inevitable pornography, the 178 downloads traced from North Korea include Top Gear, Britain's Biggest Hoarders, HBO documentaryManhunt: The Search for Bin Laden, and even games like Angry Birds and Far Cry 3. All these activities were traced from a single neighborhood in Pyongyang (NK's capital), where you can find the headquarters of the country's mobile network provider.
Because the country's citizens aren't free to do many, many things, and internet connections there are usually very slow, one can't help but wonder: who downloaded all these, and how did they do it? It's likely impossible to be 100 percent certain whether these downloads, some from as far back as February 2012, really did originate from the country. For all we know, there could be another explanation for those IPs. It could also just be a fearless foreigner desperate for his dose of car and human porn... or the Supreme Leader himself, looking for something to do on weekends.
[Image credit: jurgenfr/Getty]
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