Gizmodo: north korea

The North Korea Cyberattack Aftermath: We Are F*cked

Jesus Diaz — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:00:00 EDT

Defense Tech has some interesting analysis of what happened with the North Korea's attacks on United States and South Korean government sites. Given Kim Jong Il's pathetic telecommunication infrastructure, their summary is both scary and kind of saddening.

To start with, the U.S. Government ignored the attack warnings and has admitted that they didn't handle the successful Distributed Denial of Service attacks properly. They assumed our defenses were going to work perfectly against a bunch of North Korean bozos. They were wrong:

The current U.S. defenses against cyber attack are woefully inadequate against even moderate level attacks as we have just experienced.

Since these attacks were routed or launched through systems in 16 countries, they recommend for the government and friendly countries to sign agreements on cyber warfare defense as soon as possible.

The most scary part is: How do you react to these attacks? The South Korean intelligence agency claims to have documents from the North Korean government ordering these electronic attacks. If that's the case, should the United States retaliate? Even while there is no smoke and physical mayhem, DDoS attacks can cause real damage in the virtual world and have the potential paralyze the economy.

The problem here is that an counter-cyberattack will have little effect on North Korea, as they are barely communicated. The other option is to use real bombs to respond to cyberattacks, like we saw before. I don't know what would happen, but these North Korean dudes better get their act together, because the future doesn't look good at all. [Defense Tech]

Are You Worried About North Korea And Their Defense Technology?

Sean Fallon — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:00:00 EDT

We have heard a lot recently about North Korea and their missile program (or lack thereof), but do you really consider them a threat to the US? How should we handle the situation?

[Image via Kim Jong Il Photoshop Contest]

North Korea Now Attacking US Government Sites, Sources Say

Jesus Diaz — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:50:00 EDT

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.Since North Korea's unreliable "Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles" are still far from hitting the US, Kim Jong Il's hacker hordes are now attacking US government web sites. At least, according to the South Korea Information Security Agency.

If the information is true, North Korean hackers launched an offensive using denial of service attacks against the Treasury Department, Secret Service, Federal Trade Commission, and Transportation Department's web sites, which were down at some points during July 4 and this week. These attacks have been confirmed by US officials, although the origin hasn't been clarified by the US government yet.

The hackers simultaneously attacked South Korea's government sites too, including the Blue House—the equivalent to the White House—and the Defense Ministry. The South Koreans are claiming that the DoD attacks used 12,000 zombie PCs in Korea, and 8,000 in other parts of the world.

Can I say these guys are fucking bunch of morons? Oh wait, I did already. [Yahoo News]

What's the Fallout if North Korea Nukes Hawaii?

Brian Lam — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 08:00:29 EDT

North Korea's aiming their test missile near Hawaii. The US military says they can protect the islands, and locals aren't too worried, but if something happens, the thermal, shockwave and radioactive fallout will look something like this.

The Carlos Labs Google Maps Mash up, which we've featured before, has been now updated with a simulation for 6 kiloton Korean weapons. Let's hope we never have to fact check its accuracy, or we'll have to kick Kim Jong Il's Ass. [Carloslabs]

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.
The red is a thermal radius.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.
The purple is the pressure wave.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.
The green is the fallout, as affected by the wind.

More Analysis on the Korean Rocket Launch

Jason Chen — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:20:00 EDT

Really interested in what kind of nuclear rocket capability North Korea has? The Bulletin does a really in-depth analysis of the latest launch, based on released and carefully reasoned interpolated data.

It's quite interesting, with well-thought-out logic that points to NK obtaining parts and knowledge from Russia. In short, they probably don't have quite as good a capability for delivering the payload as previously thought. [The Bulletin]

In Which We Provoke Kim Jong Il in 77 Offensive and Hilarious Ways

Adam Frucci — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:00:00 EDT

OK, so if crazy Kim Jong Il does try nuking Hawaii this weekend, don't blame me. He was planning on it before this horrifying and hilarious gallery of shameful Photoshops appeared. Oh god, what have I done?

First Place — Nick Dwyer
Second Place —T. Baxter
Third Place — Dave Corrasa

Let's Shame Kim Jong Il

Adam Frucci — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 10:40:00 EDT

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.So, North Korea's Kim Jong Il thinks he can scare us with threats about nuking Hawaii, does he? I'm not scared of some dictator with a Napoleon complex. So lets shame him the only way we know how: with Photoshop.

Send your best Photoshops that would shock and shame the North Korean dictator to me at contests@gizmodo.com with "Kim Jong Il" in the subject line by next Tuesday morning. Save your entries as JPGs, PNGs or GIFs and use a FirstnameLastname.jpg naming convention using whatever name you want to be credited with. On Tuesday, I'll pick the three best/most shameful entries as our winners and post the rest of the best in the Gallery of Champions. Get to it!

Just Where Can North Korea's Missiles Hit?

Jason Chen — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:00:00 EDT

This Guardian report says that North Korea would hit the United States with a "fire shower" of nukes if we attack first. But how far can NK deliver the 5-7 nukes that they're currently suspected of having?

According to Wikipedia, it depends. If they're using the short to medium range missiles, it's probably going to be the Musudan, which has an operational range of 2500-4000 kilometers. The darker red circle shows the maximum range of this. Nowhere close to US territories, but China, Russia and Japan should probably keep an eye open.

However, if they're going to use their Taepodong-2 long range three-stage missiles, there's a MAXIMUM possibility of 10,000 kilometers (the larger circle). However, a more likely scenario is somewhere around 4500 kilometers, which still isn't quite far enough to hit Alaska or Hawaii.

In the case that somehow it can reach the maximum 10,000 kilometers, it's still not quite there to the west coast of the US, so I can take my diapers off and stop worrying. [Guardian]

Update: Ah crap. There's a reason why I don't do this for a living. The Earth is round. Here's a better map. We're all screwed. Thanks commenters. Forget everything I wrote.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.

Kim Jong-il Has More Twitter Followers than You

Mark Wilson — Fri, 29 May 2009 13:40:00 EDT

I didn't want it to come to this. But if enriching uranium is the only way I can amass a decent threshold of Twitter followers, then so be it. [Gary Varvel via Newlaunches]

North Korea Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Fails Miserably

Jesus Diaz — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 19:24:24 EDT

According to the US Northern Command, the infamous North Korean launch of an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile—which went over Japan terrifying Brian Ashcraft—has been a complete failure, with its payload falling into the Pacific Ocean:

NORAD and USNORTHCOM monitor North Korean launch

April 05, 2009

PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. - North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command officials acknowledged today that North Korea launched a Taepo Dong 2 missile at 10:30 p.m. EDT Saturday which passed over the Sea of Japan/East Sea and the nation of Japan.

Stage one of the missile fell into the Sea of Japan/East Sea. The remaining stages along with the payload itself landed in the Pacific Ocean.

No object entered orbit and no debris fell on Japan.

NORAD and USNORTHCOM assessed the space launch vehicle as not a threat to North America or Hawaii and took no action in response to this launch.

This is all of the information that will be provided by NORAD and USNORTHCOM pertaining to the launch.

Apparently, their rocket technology is not really there yet, and the second stage never separated or ignited, according to Defense Tech's analysis. And that's yet another pathetic failure by the North Korean clowns, boys and girls. Maybe Kim Yong-il and the rest of his gang should develop pork buns for their starving population, rather ICBMs. [Northern Command via Defense Tech]

Kim Jong Il's Plan to Bring the Moon to North Korea Isn't Actually Real...Right Guys?

Mark Wilson — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 18:00:00 EST

Breaking news from The Onion: Kim Jong Il will transport the moon to North Korea by 2015. And it's a plan that's so damn crazy that it just might work. [via bbGadgets]

North Korea To Get Its First National Mobile Phone Network

John Mahoney — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 11:45:00 EST

Kim Jong Il may be on his deathbed, but now he can easily order via cellphone more rare stewed peacock meat to be delivered to him via horseback while the theme from the Godfather plays.

Yes, even though North Korea's roads are empty, its people tragically impoverished, its Internet connectivity practically nil, the country will soon be getting a brand new mobile phone network. After a train explosion in 2004—thought to be an attempt on the dear leader's life—cellphones have been banned in North Korea with stiff punishments (some even say execution) for those caught with a phone.

But now, the Egyptian telecom giant Orascom will build an all-new network covering Pyongyang and other major cities. The contract is rumored to be worth around $400 million for Orascom, who has a lock on the rogue and semi-rogue state network business having also built Zimbabwe's network for Robert Mugabe. [The Inquirer]

US Kills North Korean iPod Sales To Spite Kim Jong Il

Jason Chen — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 19:30:45 EST

In an effort to sanction North Korea via luxury items, the US is engaging in the first ever effort to "personally aggravate a foreign president" by targeting items he personally enjoys. The list includes, besides the iPod:

cognac, Rolex watches, cigarettes, artwork, expensive cars, Harley Davidson motorcycles or even personal watercraft, such as Jet Skis. The new ban would extend even to music and sports equipment.

Besides those, the leader enjoys:

Mercedes, BMW and Cadillac cars; Japanese and Harley Davidson motorcycles; Hennessy XO cognac from France and Johnny Walker Scotch whisky; Sony cameras and Japanese air conditioners.

Who doesn't? – Jason Chen

U.S. bans sale of iPods to North Korea [Freep]

Sale of iPods, Other Electronics To North Korea Banned

Gizloco — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 08:25:43 EST

Looks like you won't be able to purchase iPods, plasma TVs and other such fancy electronics in North Korea anymore. The U.S. government wants to ban the shipment of so-called luxury items to North Korea mainly to piss off Kim Jong Il, the country's leader. It's thought to be the first time in history where economic sanctions were drawn up simply to upset a foreign leader. USA all the way, baby.

While it's true that the average North Korean pretty much has no chance in hell of buying the things we take for granted, Kim is known to enjoy things like our iPods and our Hollywood movies. (And here I thought he had good taste.) Wonder if he uses prefers a Zune to an iPod or is an Apple fanboy? – Nicholas Deleon

U.S. Bans Sale of IPods to North Korea [AP]