N Korea cuts off phone lines
2005-06-10 13:41
Seoul - North Korea has blocked most of its international telephone lines in order to restrict the exchange of information with the outside world, according to South Korean government sources.
Earlier this week a South Korean newspaper said the isolated Stalinist regime had shut down 90% of its outside phone lines since April and confiscated about 20 000 mobile telephones since May last year.
The source confirmed to reporters that "most of the country's international telephone service appears to be controlled" and that "there appear to be restrictions on the use of mobile phones in North Korea from mid-2004".
The use of cellphones, which were only introduced to North Korea in 2002, and of the internet had been seriously restricted by a regime that worries about losing its hold on information and fears a possible United States attack.
The JoongAng daily reported on Tuesday that North Korea had restricted domestic communications and blocked 90% of its 970 international lines since April under a direct order from its leader Kim Jong-Il.
North Korea has been locked in a tense stand-off with the United States over its nuclear weapons drive since 2002.
Due to the restrictions, the North's foreign ministry now used just two phone lines, with the military operating another two and the ministry of foreign trade just one, the newspaper report said.
A domestic computer intranet that was previously available to North Korean colleges had also been shut down, the report said, adding that only two government departments have internet links.
North Korea had also confiscated 20 000 mobile phones since May 2004, the daily said. Experts believe North Korea's leaders realised the devices caused a flood of foreign cultural influences into the reclusive country.
North Korea also fears that smugglers using mobile telephones on the Chinese border are leaking sensitive information to the outside world about the reclusive state, a Japanese refugee relief group said last November.
- AFP