I hate to break this news to Cade Metz, but English isn't the only language online, or anywhere else in the world.

If North Korea (or North Corea) is .kp and South K/Corea is .kr, does this mean that they've left .kq for the no-man's-land in between?

I hate to break it to David Goldstein, but I suspect the article may have been slightly tongue in cheek. You're not American, by any chance, are you David?

Time to bring back the flashing "Joke Alert" button....

And they are doing the adult industry out of Spu.nk

Normally people have a go at our american cousins for not caring about other languages. Now when someone who *may* be an american *does* care about other languages, you have a go at him?

Damned if you do and damned if you don't?

Hardly fair is it...

I suspect they wouldn'tve had "a go" at David had the article been serious, as he raised a very valid point that a lot of people don't consider.

However, given the tone of the article, I'm joining the "JOKE ALERT" brigade and thus think his comments are fair game.

Cheers,

Mike

For the serious comments here...

ISO 3166-1, Alpha-2 for DPRK is KP. Alpha-3 is PRK.

What you need to look at is that this domain has been RESERVED by IANA, there is noone controlling it, or no indication that anyone will take control and start registrations etc.

Kinda reminds me of that Simpsons episode where Homer is pondering all the potholes involved in giving his newborn son a name which could be made to rhyme with unfortunate things by his future schoolmates. Then he goes: 'Bart? Hmmm... Cart, Dart... ...Eee-art... Nope - can't see anything wrong with that!'

And in other news: how about a "PO-FACED WANNABE CURTAIN-TWITCHING PRIGS WHO CAN'T THINK OF ANYTHING BETTER TO DO THAN TO GO ONLINE AND ADVERTISE HIS INABILITY TO GET THIS THING YOU HUMANS CALL H-U-M-O-U-R ALERT". Trips off the tongue and would avoid this frightful sort misunderestanding happening in the first place, don't you know.

Get a life, dude, sheesh.

I suspect it was a bet to see if the words "blind drunk", "spunk" and "go home yank" could be used in an El Reg article. Methinks someone lost a forfeit last night.

We loose pu.nk as well.

Korean (democratic) Peoples' (republic)

...or is it funny that we are arguing about whether Americans get such jokes when the original author is in America?

I prefer wouldn't've.

I think the point is that those who can't spot a joke are more likely to be American, not that all Americans can't spot jokes.

I have to wonder whether or not David was taking the piss too as the article was pretty obviously a joke.

Jim - don't worry, there's enough spu.nk to go around.

KP presumably is some mutant version of "Korean People's Republic" given than country codes are usually two letters, (have they registered "kpr" too - so we can get www.yahoo.kpr ?). Downside is that "kpr" sounds awful like "crapper". ;)

On a less serious note, was ".kp" chosen because:

(a) it's one character ahead of their capitalist brothers in the south, who have ".kr"; or

(b) it's a tribute to the "Great Leader" (or whatever his title this month), with ".kp" standing for "Kim's Place".

Just a thought....

Robert, which alphabet do you use??

'p' is 2 characters before 'r'

p...q...r

North Korea could never accept .nk, just as south Korea couldnt accept .sk

Both do not recognise the right of the other to exist. They both claim themselves to be the only legitamate authority of the entirity of korea.

By accepting a n or s in their names, they accept that the other exists. Which they do not.

Plus neither N or S korea call themselves that. Neither North or South appears in their names

and wa.nk, natch.

...q has been taken in for antirevolutionary activities and will soon perform a great service to the state (fertilizer is in high demand). Now what was your IP-address again...?

I noticed that as soon as I'd hit the Post Comment button :-(

That's what I get for posting to a commentboard with no "Edit" function before I've had my morning coffee.

Yours humbly,

Chastised of Derby

Kevin Pietersen is gutted! Can you imagine trying to lease a domain from Kim Jung Il? "I'm wone-wee...so wone-wee...."

Americans are less likely tospot a jokes? Really? And after all we've done to elect one of the most laughable national leaders in recent memory..... bloody limeys...

You colonial bretheren,

Keller

Spotting Jokes and Creating a joke or just being one are two very different things.

"I think the point is that those who can't spot a joke are more likely to be American, not that all Americans can't spot jokes."

As a former professional entertainer*, I have to tell you that the British are the best people in the world to have in the audience during a comic's act; they laugh at every joke three times. You see, the British culture (at least of those sufficiently well-off to purchase an admission ticket) has taught then to be unfailingly polite. Thus, whenever a comic tells a joke, the Brits laugh, because they are so polite. Then when the comic explains the joke, the Brits laugh, because they are so polite. And an hour later, the Brits laugh, when they "get it."

* - Stnad-up comic, children's clown, US Army Mech Infantry Bradley commander, IT tech, Web hosting company CEO... I'm a man for all sorts of comedy.

I was thinking that South Korea (.kr) grabbed the English shorthand for the whole of "Korea", thereby pissing off North Korea (.kp) who elected to make a go for the English shorthand for the whole "Korean Peninsula".

But then I followed Simon's lead and noticed that "kr" is South Korea's ISO country code and "kp" is North Korea's ISO country code. Both codes are based on English, of course. So it's kind of a non-issue ... except for the humor.

No, I am not American, far from it. Basically the article is just dumb. If it was meant to be funny, the author needs lessons in comedy.

David

KP actually stands for "Korean Prison" which is how that country treats it people. As usual, I can only hope that the "accident" will obliterate the leaders and let those in the south take over. Il (or whatever you say it) eventually will be "taken out" probably by his own people.

I seriously doubt that anyone will do anything with the domain name anyway. On the other hand, we should start a country with the initials NK just to have silly domain names. It is a growth industry.

were meant to be funny sorry this story

isn't funny so the humor is not a factor either

right up there with all those jokes about ICANN

I just can't laugh at tld's they aren't humor material

the jokes just stillborn a dead field of non-humor aside

from the snorting buck toothed brits laughing at this

inane crap which is more funny unsetteling than funny

haha. What next risable content about EMT storage or

possibly some laughs about DBM's. Somebody needs to

wipe the drool off and go back to crawl space where he

lives and think about what he's done. Inbred cretins.

Of course the article was just a brilliant piece, to prove that The Register sometimes can also be ridiculous intentionally. However, as some hinted, it's the case to remind that ICANN does not pick the 2-letter code, nor does the country itself (at least during the domain name delegation procedure). ISO does. Codes usually follow official country names as far as possible, hence the K for Korea and the P for Popular.

It's called humour, guys. OK, so it may not be funny to some people, fair enough. Now move along. Nothing more to see heer.

Oh and whoever

is writing like

this without using any grammar in his struct

ure, please, for the love of god, stop it! Learn how

to punctuate, and how to structure sentences correctly. (And

possibly, the correct use of the return key as well)

;)

that .KP was reserved for disney for their Kim Possible website... :P

Any idea if she's chased the evil baddies through the North korean nuclear las yet?