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Comment by notdonspaulding | Hacker News Reader

They did not have internet. From the article:

> You were in a country that really was sealed off from the rest of the world. No internet or social media. All press and TV (one channel) dedicated not for news but solely for the glorification of the Leader. That is the Kim dynasty and the regime.

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Obviously the average citizen don't have Internet, but an embassy without Internet (most probably through satellite) is unthinkable, they need to be able to talk to their home government.

But if we go back 20 years (others have said this is written in the early 2000's), satellite communication was probably worse than 28.8k modems and really expensive, so yeah, it could've been there but only for official and not personal use.

> But if we go back 20 years (others have said this is written in the early 2000's), satellite communication was probably worse than 28.8k modems

I take it you are under 30 years old.

You've got all your timings wrong.

20 years ago Americans had no smartphones. Only some tech savy Europeans had Symbian phones.

I am sorry but this is not true, the Danger Hiptop also known as T-Mobile Sidekick series was incredibly popular in the US starting with the color version in 2003. By any definition it was a smartphone. (Also, Android is direct successor to it as Andy Rubin left Danger to start Android.)

They have Iphone 11s in NK and plenty of smartphones. They have some internet, and they'd have more if they West allowed some investment and wasn't punishing a civilian population because of who their leaders are.

I wonder how NK blocking their own internet from the outside world is the west punishing the NK civilian population.

Later on they talk about installing a satellite dish for diplomatic communication, so the embassy might have had some sort of internet connection over that.

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