back to article North Korea labels phone users war criminals

North Korea has banned the use of mobile phones for 100 days while it formally mourns the death of its late "glorious leader" Kim Jong-Il. Those who disobey the dictat will be treated as war criminals and punished accordingly, it has been claimed. Following Kim Jong-Il's death from a heart attack in December 2011, hordes of …

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  1. tmTM

    oh well

    They can't complain.

    1. Rod MacLean
      Joke

      RE: oh well

      They can't complain by phone anyway...

  2. dotdavid
    Big Brother

    War criminal?

    Don't you need to be having a war to be dubbed a war criminal? Is North Korea having a war on phones, or is it just having one on reality?

    1. ravenviz Silver badge
      Facepalm

      Re: War criminal?

      They are at war. With South Korea.

    2. MJI Silver badge

      The **** Ronerys

      THEY are the war criminals, not their victims!

    3. Chad H.

      Technically speaking

      The Korean War never ended. There's just a long term truce.

    4. laird cummings
      Big Brother

      We have ALWAYS been at war with Eastasia!

  3. Uncle Slacky Silver badge
    Stop

    Why not just...

    ...disable the 3G netxork itself? Switch off the towers?

    1. Arnold Lieberman
      Facepalm

      *Obvious*, innit?

      How else would the Party Apparatchik order whores? It's the *people* (i.e. ordinary citizens) who are not supposed to use their phones.

  4. DrXym

    Yet another warning to investors

    North Korea gave out the mobile phone licence to an Egyptian mobile phone operator called Orascom on the proviso that they clad the outside of one of the ugliest buildings in the world - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryugyong_Hotel. It still looks like an eyesore but slightly better than what it did.

    And now for Orascom's efforts they can enjoy watching their phone network go dark for 4 months. Thanks North Korea! I wouldn't be surprised if the network nationalised next on some flimsy pretense.

    Such are the joys of dealing with the most totalitarian paranoid states in the world. Serves Orascom right really.

  5. BristolBachelor Gold badge
    Coat

    North Korea = San Francisco?

    Is this just an extension of all the fuss over the "Bay Area Rapid Transport" network? Or are just just copying; Oh look the West turn off mobile networks when there is a risk of trouble, let's do the same...

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    mobiles

    This doesn't surprise me but I bet it won't apply to plenty of people.

    I was there for a couple of weeks this year. In Pyongyang mobiles were very common and in parks we saw locals singing and dancing and filming themselves on their phones. They also allow foreigners who visit regularly to buy special NK mobiles but they have a different number prefix and are unable to call locals' mobiles (but are able to call landlines).

    They use a GSM network - I was able to see their network on my iphone - before they confiscated it at the airport for the duration of the trip. They also confiscate any GPS devices (including cameras). One guy got a 3G kindle past them and while we were at the border with China waiting for them to examine/delete photos they didn't like on our cameras, he was happily using the internet - I'm sure a fair few people near the border must use Chinese SIM cards for foreign communications.

    By the way - they've just discovered pasties courtesy of Kim Jong il -- http://fb.me/1HO3szL5T

    1. Anonymous Coward 15
      Devil

      "I went home with pasties associated with his warm love."

      Ewwwwwwwwwwww! Too much!

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Brings a whole new meaning to...

    ..cell phone.

  8. perlcat
    Joke

    I know the reason

    Trying to head off the inevitable cell pics of Kin Jong Un "Looking at Stuff".

  9. Mectron

    how to instantly solve NK problem

    any related to the power in place is shoot on sigh. all military/nuclear installation is compltetly flatten. any trace of the current regime is vaporize. NNK US NO A LEGITIMATE CONTRY PERIOD.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      To quote Pulp Fiction....

      "English, muthafucka - DO YOU SPEAK IT!?!"

      1. Steve Renouf
        Facepalm

        Hmmmmph

        Obviously, it isn't his native language! Let's see you write something in his language AH

        (Without wishing to stereotype, I'm guessing you're a 'Merkin...)

    2. laird cummings
      Trollface

      Aaaand... now we've heard from the loony fringe.

      Our day is complete.

  10. Mike Moyle

    Is it my old eyes...

    ...or is Kim wearing a silk, pin-stripe Mao suit in that picture...?

    All the workers are equal, but some are more equal than others...

    1. laird cummings
      Mushroom

      He is.

      My mind just tripped several breakers, trying to process the hypocracy.

      1. unitron
        Headmaster

        Yeah...

        And the hypocrisy is even worse.

  11. Haku
    Coat

    HELLO?!

    YEAH, I'M IN NORTH KOREA!

    NO IT'S RUB*BANG*BANG*BANG*

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    OK, no2GSM but did NK sign ACTA yesterday?

    aaa ccc ttt aaa

  13. John Savard

    Confusing the Koreans

    A web search turned up a video about "making pasties in Cornwall" by The Guardian, a British newspaper, that was really about pastry, not the adhesive nipple covers once used by strippers. So apparently this confusion is not confined to North Korea.

    1. SkippyBing

      Pasties, the plural of Pasty

      God's own foodstuff

      http://www.properpasty.co.uk/

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