international intrigue

Anonymous Tells Kim Jong Un to Step Down

Photo released by the KCNA news agency on April 1 shows that Kim Jong-un, leader of Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), speaks during a plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the DPRK in Pyongyang, capital of the DPRK, on March 31, 2013.
Kim Jong Un wants to know if his password was stolen. Photo: KCNA/Xinhua Press/Corbis

Hackers claiming to be part of Anonymous claim to have gained access to 15,000 “membership records” from www.uriminzokkiri.com, a source for North Korean propaganda and “one of North Korea’s only Internet websites.” Unless the regime of Kim Jong Un wants to face even more, presumably harsher repercussions, it must end its quest for nuclear weapons and completely absolve power, according to the group’s demands:

We demand:
- N.K. government to stop making nukes and nuke-threats
- Kim Jong-un to resign
- it’s time to install a free direct democracy in North Korea
- uncensored internet access for all the citizens!

The hackers also implored North Korea’s citizens — most of whom lack the ability to read manifestos posted online — to “rise up and bring these motherfuckers of a [sic] oppressive government down!”

Meanwhile, in the offline world, tensions on the Korean peninsula continue to mount. North Korea announced yesterday that it would be restarting a dormant nuclear reactor to provide material for nuclear weapons — but only for the purpose of deterrence, it claims. South Korea is negotiating with the U.S. for the go-ahead to enrich uranium and reprocess spent nuclear fuel — but only for peaceful purposes, it claims. None of this should be a problem because everyone involved trusts each other so much.