Seoul: North Korea has offered a rare
glimpse of life inside its borders, after posting pictures on
its new Facebook site of happy picnickers, grassy parks and
colourful landmarks from across Pyongyang.
Even though few of its citizens have Internet access, as
of 8:00pm (1100 GMT) today the North had made 391 Facebook
"friends" after uploading about 100 pictures, video links and
wallpostings as its foray into social media gathers pace.
Some pictures showed North Koreans smiling broadly,
wearing colourful traditional clothes and picnicking in grassy
parks in one of the world's most secretive nations.
Others captured landscapes and landmarks from across the
capital -- manipulated to add vivid colours.
Video posts on its page railed against the South and
exalted leader Kim Jong-Il, while its wall was littered with
government statements and thumbs-up signs -- Facebook language
for liking a posting. Most of the nation's friends were ethnic
Koreans.
The North launched its Facebook page on Thursday,
initially under the moniker "uriminzokkiri" -- which means
"with us Koreans" and is the name used by its official website
-- before it changed its profile name to "urimzok".
A link to its Facebook account was posted on its Twitter
profile, which was opened two weeks ago under the name
@uriminzok, allowing friends to post links barracking Seoul
and Washington.
PTI
First Published: Monday, August 23, 2010, 21:56