October 14, 2016 12:41
North Korean propaganda website Uriminzokkiri has started using the photo and video sharing site Tumblr even as Internet access remains blocked for nearly all North Koreans.
The accounts have been used to post photos of official events surrounding the founding anniversary of the Workers Party on Monday and visits to a statue of regime founder Kim Il-sung. Later on Monday there were some fetching night views of Pyongyang.
But the accounts also shows off the caring side of the murderous regime, like officials releasing pheasants and roe deer into the wild in Hwanghae Province.
The North has drastically increased online propaganda in recent days, according to data Saenuri Party lawmaker Lee Jong-myung received from the Defense Ministry on Thursday.
The activities peaked with nearly 10,000 posts in July, when the regime was frantically engaged in nuclear and missile tests and South Korea decided to let the U.S. station a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense battery here.
According to the Defense Ministry, the North has 27 social media accounts, including three on Twitter, five on Facebook, six on YouTube accounts, three on Flickr and three on Tumblr.
The main aim is to bypass South Korean blocks on propaganda websites, allowing it to take part in heated political debates here. Between March and May last year, the regime posted some 200 messages a month on social media as the THAAD missile battery debate first reared its head.
South Korea has trouble coping with the flood of North Korean propaganda. In 2014, police blocked three pro-Pyongyang sites overseas and 960 social media accounts. But in the first half of this year alone, they blocked six pro-Pyongyang sites overseas and 565 social media accounts and shut down 42 discussion threads.
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