Uriminzokkiri is the official website of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, distributing information over the web and, since August 2010, over Twitter[1]. Articles of North Korean media are provided at the site.
Uriminzokkiri claims for peaceful re-unification of Korea and communities of the North and the South. However, much of the impression is that Uriminzokkiri is viewed as PR propaganda of North Korea. There are inappropriate articles supporting and praising the North Korea government and leader. Many of the articles do not reflect the reality of North Korea and is used to propagate their ideals of socialism.
Uriminzokkiri is also criticized for screening comments. In the process of filtering comments, Uriminzokkiri only allows advocative comments to be posted. This is done by site managers in Shen Yang, China, by reading through all the comments one by one. However, several times their efforts to screen derogatory comments have failed. Website managers were summoned back to North Korea when members of DC Inside, a South Korean site, posted a comment by using a acrostic. While the content of the comments seemed to praise Kim Jong-Il and his heir, reading the first letters of every line made up the words '김정일 미친놈' and '김정은 개새끼' meaning 'Kim Jong-Il is a lunatic' and 'Kim Jong-Eun is a son of a b****'.
There has been a further unpleasant encounter with DCInside members. When DCInside was the target of a DDoS attack, many of its members allegedly accused government-run North Korean network crackers. Members of DCInside, then sprang up into action, on 7 Jan 2011, a huge number of DCInside members, each using a server attack tool, declared an all-out cyber war on the North Korean PR websites, including Uriminzokkiri and its youtube, facebook account as well. As a result, the main page of Uriminzokkiri was filled up with satires and agitative comments. Also its youtube account was posted with videos parodying the latest derailment of a train that was filled with luxuries for Kim Jong-Eun, Kim Jong-Ill's heir. The video features Kim Jong-Eun driving a sports car, running over starving children saying 'I don't need the people of North Korea', then ending up being squashed by the train and coughing up blood. This event stirred up the South Korean public, making it one of the hottest topical current affairs issues at the time.