North Korea seeks social network publicity

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea’s main government website has begun adding icons for users to post its statements fiercely criticising the United States and South Korea on popular social networks including Facebook.

Stinging postings attacking Seoul and Washington were posted on the North’s official site (www.uriminzokkiri.com) with icons linking to Twitter, Facebook and two South Korean portals, NHN and Daum, allowing users to post the content through the social networks.

The development was first reported on Monday by South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, which monitors the North’s media.

Pyongyang strictly restricts access by its own people to the Internet but uses it extensively for overseas propaganda.

It joined Twitter under the name @uriminzok (“our own nationals”) in August last year, months after its foray on to the popular video-sharing site YouTube.

The communist country has attracted more than 10,000 followers on Twitter.

In January the official news agency began posting video footage on its website, and a month later, the ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun launched its own site.

South Korea blocks access to the North’s websites under a tough security law but some people in the South use proxy servers to access them.