back to article El Reg protests North Korean internet domain

The Register isn't too happy about last week's news that North Korea is poised to register its own Internet domain. No, we don't have a problem with the communist stronghold joining our nothing-less-than-capitalistic worldwide party, first reported by The Associated Press. But we do take issue with its choice of domain name. …

COMMENTS

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  1. David Goldstein

    psst, English aint the only language

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

  2. Aubry Thonon

    KR & KP

    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?

  3. Les

    Pssst

    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....

  4. Jim Cosser

    Evil

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

  5. Graham Dawson Silver badge

    So what if he is american?

    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...

  6. Mike Bennett

    @Graham

    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

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    ISO

    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.

  8. MishyMoshy

    Bo(.nk)ers

    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.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The real reason for the article

    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.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    PU.NK

    We loose pu.nk as well.

  11. Bill Fresher

    .kp IS English

    Korean (democratic) Peoples' (republic)

  12. Alex Barlow

    Is it just me

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

  13. ted

    @Mike

    I prefer wouldn't've.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Alex Barlow

    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.

  15. Simon Greenwood

    Re: Evil

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

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Seems okay to me.

    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....

  17. Keiran

    Re: Seems okay to me.

    Robert, which alphabet do you use??

    'p' is 2 characters before 'r'

    p...q...r

  18. Chad H.

    Joking aside

    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

  19. 4.1.3_U1

    re: Evil

    and wa.nk, natch.

  20. Morten Ranulf Clausen

    That's one character, comrade...

    ...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...?

  21. Mike Bennett

    @Ted

    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

  22. Chris Beckett

    I bet

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

  23. Keller Drozdick

    Americans and Jokes

    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

  24. Michael Sheils

    RE: Americans and Joke

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

  25. Morely Dotes

    Inaccurate

    "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.

  26. James Butler

    @Chad H.

    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.

  27. David Goldstein

    re: Pssst

    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

  28. Tom

    What it realy stands for (unfortunately)

    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.

  29. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Joke, I thought jokes

    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.

  30. vbertola

    Who picks the codes

    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.

  31. Jon Thompson

    WTF?

    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)

    ;)

  32. Rhys

    I always thought

    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?

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