SEOUL, Aug. 23 (Yonhap) -- The operator of a Facebook Web page displaying North Korea's propaganda material has claimed that the account belongs to Pyongyang and is run by an organ handling the communist state's relations with South Korea.
In a "note" responding to an inquiry by Yonhap News Agency, the operator of http://facebook.com/uriminzok said the site is run by a company under the Committee for Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, which is equivalent to Seoul's Unification Ministry.
File photoThe response is the closest thing to a confirmation by North Korean authorities concerning a series of accounts that have opened starting last month on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.
The Twitter page at http://twitter.com/uriminzok has been blocked from viewership by South Korean users since last week as Seoul bans North Korea's propaganda material, citing the technical state of war it is in with Pyongyang.
The Facebook page, however, can still be opened through a link posted on the Twitter messages, or "tweets," which are automatically provided to subscribers, or "followers."
"We are Chosun June 15 Pyonjipsa under the Committee for Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland. We are operating in Pyongyang," the Facebook operator said in a brief memo seen Monday.
Pyonjipsa means "publishing company" in Korean while June 15 symbolizes the date the divided Koreas held a summit in Pyongyang in 2000 and agreed on a range of reconciliation projects.
The company hires about 100 graduates of two of North Korea's most prestigious universities and produces a variety of multimedia content, including computer games, flash animations and videos, according to a South Korean video-sharing Web site, Pandora TV.
Pandora TV agreed to import multimedia content from Chosun June 15 Pyonjipsa to widen opportunities for South Koreans to view North Korean videos, according to its press release in 2005, when reconciliation efforts between the Koreas were picking up.
The North Korean company also supervises Pyongyang's official Web site, http://www.uriminzokkiri.com, according to Tongil News, a South Korean news outlet specializing in inter-Korean relations.
Chosun June 15 Pyonjipsa did not answer why North Korea may have begun to tap such world-renowned social media forums as Facebook and Twitter. Observers say North Korea has bolstered its online propaganda in recent months as it seeks to fight off allegations that it sank a South Korean warship in March.
On Friday, U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in a tweet, "North Korea has joined Facebook, but will it allow its citizens to belong? What is Facebook without friends?"
Seoul's Korea Communications Commission said it was planning to open a formal meeting to discuss whether the presumed North Korean Facebook page should be blocked from South Koreans.
As of Monday morning, the Facebook page with the username uriminzok, or "our nation" in Korean, had 253 friends, including those who appeared to be non-Korean.
Relations between the Koreas have deteriorated to the lowest level in years since a multinational team of investigators led by South Korea found the North responsible for the March sinking that claimed the lives of 46 sailors.
South and North Korea are locked in a technical state of warfare as the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce rather than a peace treaty.
samkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
