North Korea this week officially declared that it is blocking Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Voice of America and South Korean websites, AP reported. The country’s Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications made the announcement through North Korea’s main mobile service provider Koryolink and other Internet outlets. “Sex and adult websites” have also been banned.
According to the report, few North Koreans have access to the Internet, and those that do can only view a limited number of sites monitored by the government. Foreigners, however, were able to view what they liked. The new restrictions will mean no one, not even the few expats living the country, will be able to post anything about it to the outside world. Moreover, those living there will have no access to any information on North Korea posted elsewhere.
The announcement said anyone who accesses these sites or tries to distribute “anti-republic data” through them will be punished under the country’s law, though the punishment was not specified.
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