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South Korean Hackers Hit North Korea’s Twitter, YouTube Accounts

Someone is sending birthday greetings to Kim Jong Eun, the guy who may or may not be North Korea’s next figurehead, but who certainly has tremendous potential as an anti-regime propaganda foil.

Most YouTube viewers won’t notice a key detail about this crude (and rather clever) animation — it’s hosted on the pro-North Korean “uriminjokkiri” channel. Mr. Kim, you’ve been hacked:

Hat tip to argfoub.

The Washington Post’s Chico Harlan reports that they’ve also hit North Korea’s Twitter account (the real one, not the fake one):

Apparently breached by hackers, North Korea’s official Twitter account on Saturday described leader Kim Jong Il and heir apparent Kim Jong Eun as sworn enemies and called for an uprising to remove them from power.

By the time the micro-blogging mischief was over, the North Korean tweets had ranted to its 10,000-plus Twitter followers about profligate nuclear weapons spending and lavish Kim Jong Il drinking parties – hosted “while 3 million people are starving and freezing to death.”

Lunch, on me, to the first person who provides me a copy of the hacked tweets.

You have to wonder if the South Korean government is behind this, or whether this is the work of clever independent hacktivists, as the Post suggests. I can’t imagine this happening five or six years ago. Times certainly have changed.

The perception that Kim Jong Eun is being set up for a position of actual power has already made him the most hated man in North Korea. The perception is almost certainly false, but it isn’t groundless, either. Hello!

In North Korea, you don’t get placed prominently in venues like the reviewing stand or the Supreme Peoples’ Assembly just for Take Your Kid to Work Day. Clearly, there was a domestic propaganda campaign about Jong-Eun, of indeterminate scale. Creating the perception of dynastic continuity seems to be the only plausible motivation for this campaign. Did foreign North Korea-watchers (and North Korean citizens) infer too much from this? To the extent they thought Kim Jong Il could ever really replace his father, yes. To the extent they saw him being elevated as a figurehead, no. But if the regime has said less about Kim Jong Eun recently, it’s probably a tacit recognition of the fact that the people loathe him so much that his elevation has become a threat to the regime’s stability.

Now over to you, Kushibo.

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23 Responses

  1. They’re still visible. Go to Minzokkiri’s Twitter page and look at the recent tweets. They’re the ones sent 20 hours ago as of 2 PM Saturday. I retweeted them to save them in case they’re not there when you look.

  3. uriminzok uriminzokkiri
    우리 인민의 철천치 원쑤 김정일 력도와 아들 김정은을 몰아내여 새 세상을 만들자!
    20 hours ago Favorite Undo Retweet Reply »
    uriminzok uriminzokkiri
    조선인민군대여! 인민군들을 먹일 돈으로 핵과 미싸일 개발에 14억 딸라를 랑비한 김정일 력도에게 총부리를 겨누자
    20 hours ago Favorite Undo Retweet Reply » uriminzok uriminzokkiri
    로망난 김정일과 폭악한 새끼 돼지 김정은을 한 칼에 처단하여 우리도 남녘의 인민들처럼 이밥에 고깃국을 먹으면서 행복하게 살아보자
    20 hours ago Favorite Undo Retweet Reply

  5. Joshua notes, “Most YouTube viewers won’t notice a key detail …” That is correct. I saw a silly anti-Nork cartoon with bubbles of text I couldn’t read. The whole thing went right over my head. argfoub’s original comment about uriminzokkir, which I’d never heard of, didn’t clue me that I was observing a cool hack.

  6. “The perception that Kim Jong Il is being set up for a position of actual power has already made him the most hated man in North Korea.”

    Joshua, did you mean “Kim Jong-Eun”?

    Jeffery Hodges

    * * *

    [Oops. – js]

  7. Horace Jeffery Hodges, it’s not Joshua’s fault. It’s the Korean people’s own darned fault! Three syllables don’t allow for enough distinctive names. Half the people are named Kim, Lee, or Park. And then that leaves two syllables for individuals. Dear Leader wasted one syllable by calling his sons Jong. Only one syllable left! So I can’t blame Joshua. Do you want to read the whole sad story?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_name

    One useful custom the Koreans could have borrowed from the Japanese – longer names.

  10. colin, if Korea ever became a dominating force, then both the ROK and DPRK would have conquered Japan at least by now a thousand times. Not Vica Versa

  13. I seem to find this “Hell March” video everywhere I go, these days, which may mean it’s gone truly viral, or else just says something about how limited is the set of websites I visit.

    I will assume that the units on parade represent the best cared for, most reliable portion of the Nork armed forces. And they look positively skeletal, like little puppet scarecrows as they bounce up and down in that ludicrous goose-step. Their uniforms seem to just hang on them, as they might on a wire coat hanger. Poor miserable wretches. A lot of concentrated misery on display here.

    The other thing that jumps out for me is how many hours they must spend practicing this style of marching. I daresay the old German army never matched this level of robotic precision.

    Which means they haven’t spent any time doing any real military training.

  14. A dynastic dictatorship that claims itself the leader of “Kim Il Sung Nation,” ” Kim Il Sung Chosun,” and “Kim Il Sung Party,” per “Kim Il Sung Constitution” (all mentioned in the 2011 tripartite New Year’s Address) will obviously seek regime preservation through the Kim bloodline. That the youthful Jong Un isn’t walking into a room ahead of his father or usurping his formal titles is plain proper Confucian decorum. It does not render the crown prince one of several other candidates for leadership. Once does not see the heir of the chairman of Samsung or any other jaebol (or the heir apparent of any European monarchy) nudge his ailing parent aside and take center stage.

    Joshua said it best:

    “Creating the perception of dynastic continuity seems to be the only plausible motivation for this campaign.”

    No, NK does not have Take Your Kid to Work Day.

    Korean monarchs would confirm a son, sometimes as young as under three-years-old, the crown prince, then train them for years. Such a lengthy period of apprenticeship opened up opportunities for court intrigues, a potential vulnerability for Jong Un as well.

    The skepticism surrounding Jong Un’s status seems to stem from the usual misapplication of American norms on NK–that if the presumptive leader has been publicly confirmed, then he must be allowed to exercise power soon thereafter with pomp and ceremony. It took Jong Il himself 20 years, from 1974 until 1994, to assert himself and assume his father’s public roles–and only after the political environment allowed for the construction of the world’s most extravagant mausoleum, ie, Il Sung’s death. NK may not encumber itself with elections or open confirmation hearings, but it does exercise discretion in the mythification of its untested heir. I am sure we will be inundated this year with fantastical accounts of Jong Un’s omnicompetence a la his father and grandfather, through on-the spot guidance reports, military stunts, publications attributed to him, and the conferral of medals, awards, and titles.

  15. While that may be fun to conjecture, you can’t honestly claim to believe that the North Korean army spends the majority of their time goose stepping and not training. That’s just an absurd suggestion. I’m sure they spend a lot of time practicing their drills and marching, but you must realize just how much time the generals have with their subjects. As far as I know, there isn’t much else in the way of activity for soldiers to partake in other than military-related activities. So while they may be malnourished and comparatively wretched-looking, I think it’s incorrect to assume that they’re just a show army utilized as a tool of demonstration. There may be some truth to that but the country most definitely has a capable military to back itself up. Conflating assumed strength or lack thereof with an army’s ability on the battlefield has never proved useful, and you can point to Afghanistan, Vietnam, and even the Korean war to back that up. Let’s just stick to recognizing objective truths instead of trying to make up false positions to reassure our assumptions.

  16. Sorry, but I don’t think my “conjecture” was very wild speculation. I believe a lack of realistic military training is pretty well documented. This would involve lots of field maneuvers, at division/corps/army level. It would require the operation of hundreds or thousands of tanks and other vehicles. It would require lots and lots of flying hours on the part of their air force. It would require live-firing of missiles, and extensive target practice. They simply don’t have the resources for any of this, a conclusion that seems to be pretty well documented, at least from what I’ve seen.

    I’m inclined to believe what you see in the “Hell March” video are “show” divisions, kept near the capital and rehearsed constantly for just this sort of parade spectacle. The USSR maintained a number of these types of formations for their annual May Day parades in Red Square.

    I actually don’t believe the DPRK armed forces, apart from the “show” units in the video, spend most of their time goose-stepping. Instead, I think they spend their days as a deployable labor force. Construction, agriculture. Shaking down market stall operators. Smuggling meth into Harbin. Hustling for daily subsistence, like pretty much everyone else in the DPRK. I think this, too, is pretty well documented. I think Mr. Stanton himself has documented it.

    Now, I’d probably have to grant that there are some reasonably trained artillery and rocket units, in place along the DMZ. They probably even have a good-size ammo stockpile, even if much of this is aging to the extent of approaching its “sell-by” date.

  17. ” you can’t honestly claim to believe that the North Korean army spends the majority of their time goose stepping and not training”

    …you got me. I actually don’t believe that. Instead, I believe that most of the DPRK armed forces, apart from the show units in the video, spend most of their days scrounging for subsistence like everyone else in the DPRK. Or, as a deployable labor force. Building roads, gathering the harvest. Shaking down market stall operators, smuggling meth into Harbin.

    Actual realistic military training would involve maneuvers at division/corps/army level, involving hundreds or thousands of vehicles. Lots of flying hours for their air force. Live missile firing, lots of target practice. It seems pretty well documented that they don’t have the resources for any of this.

    I’d probably have to concede that there may be some reasonably trained rocket and artillery forces in position along the DMZ. They probably have a decent sized ammo stockpile, even if much of this is aging past its “sell-by” date.

  18. I don’t think there are all that many serious Korean watchers on either side of the Pacific Ocean that doubt Kim Jong-il’s resolve for preservation of his bloodline and a hereditary succession of his son to the throne.

    I think where some of the doubt about Kim Jong-un’s status is coming from is Kim Jong-il’s ability to turn that resolve into facts on the ground.

    – – – – – – –

    Open Radio for North Korea, a broadcast run by North Korean defectors for transmission into the North, cited an unnamed source as saying that the North Korean authorities had decided not to designate the birthday as a public holiday and gone into special alert for two days from Friday for fear of a public outburst of disapproval of Kim Jong-un’s succession.
    http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/northkorea/2011/01/09/73/0401000000AEN20110109002100315F.HTML

  20. Twitter translations.

    1. Let us drive out our people’s sworn enemy, traitor Obama and Lee, and make a new (socialist) world!

    2. South Korean People! Aim the tips of your guns to the traitor Lee and Obama who wasted 14 billion on war overseas driven by fascistic hatred. With the money that was to be used to feed, house, clothe and emply the people of the world!

    3. Let us dispose of Rich-undemocratic-puppet-pig Lee! and evil puppeteer Obama! let us share the wealth so there is none hungry, fighting, homeless, and unemployed!

    4. 3 Million have died in Iraq, even more in afghanistan, vietnam, Korea due to the anti-korea anti-people capitalists; let us dispose of the Obama and Lee who maintain exploitationist capitalism that want us to fight, hate each other for their capitalist profits.

  21. What are you translating? Here are the Tweets posted by hackers and their (attempted) translations:

    1. 300만 인민들이 굶어죽고 얼어죽었는데 초호화별장에서 처녀들과 난잡한 술파티를 벌이고 있는 김정일을 처단하자

    Punish Kim Jung-il, who has wild parties at his villa while three million people have starved and frozen to death.

    2. 로망난 김정일과 폭악한 새끼 돼지 김정은을 한 칼에 처단하여 우리도 남녘의 인민들처럼 이밥에 고깃국을 먹으면서 행복하게 살아보자

    If we punish senile Kim Jong-il and his piglet Kim Jong-un with the same knife, we too can eat well and live happily like South Koreans.

    3. 조선인민군대여! 인민군들을 먹일 돈으로 핵과 미싸일 개발에 14억 딸라를 랑비한 김정일 력도에게 총부리를 겨누자

    Korean People’s Army! Aim your rifles at Kim Jong-il, who wasted 1.4 billion dollars of your money on missiles and nuclear weapons.

    4. 우리 인민의 철천치 원쑤 김정일 력도와 아들 김정은을 몰아내여 새 세상을 만들자!

    Let’s make a new world without our sworn enemy Kim Jong-il.

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