Get Your Tweet On: Korean Companies on Twitter

Twitter has seen an explosion in Korea over the last six months, and especially the last 3 months since the launch of the iPhone. 

There are Thousands of Koreans out there that, just like their western and English speaking counterparts, are more than willing to share the intricacies about their daily lives: "이곳은 덕붂이를 맛있는"etc etc, Korean companies have also taken to the Twitter verse in Numbers greater than there Non-Korean counterparts.

Now the majority tweet in Korean. (Its surprising though how much more info you can disseminate in 140 Korean characters vis-a-vis English) And are seldom disposed to do @replies or DMs in English, but occasionally they surprise.

Below I have curated a substantial list of Corporate Korean Twitterers and if you have any additions please let me know in the comments. To save (my own) time I haven't linked to each page so incase you can't figure it out you'll have to type in their Twitter URL manually thus:

http://www.twitter.com/<username>

In addition there are a few comments where applicable for each - especially if the Username needs explaining.

• 10_magazine
• AsianaAirlines
• bloglgt - LG Telecom
• daumnet - Daum.net
• Dongwon_tuna
• Emartmall_com - E.Mart
• EnglishChosun - Chosun Bimbo Ilbo in English
• Freshmaeil - Milk company
• GmarketGlobal
• GoldenTeeAsia - Steve Ward's Golf Game
• gotfeverSKY - SKY mobile handset manufacturer
• hanguknews - Aggregates Korean related news from across the web
• koreanclass101
• KoreaContent - Korea Creative Content Association
• koreagames - Korean Game developer
• Koreanair_seoul
• koreanet
• korearacing - results and stewards reports from Korea Horse-racing Association
• koreatimes
• koreatourism - The KTO
• Kyosujob - Korean Job hunting website
• Libro_bookstore
• loisatgoogle - A Korean Google staffer 
• Nanoomi - An online project I'm involved with
• ollehkt - KT
• plaync - NC Soft
• rmh_seoul - Rate my Hakwon (Not strictly corporate)
• SKtelecom_blog
• Tattermedia - Korean Blog aggregator / Ad network
• withmbc - Mugunghwa Broadcasting Corporation
• YonhapNews

By no means an exhaustive list and doesn't count the numerous bloggers and other Korea related identities on Twitter - ideas and others in the comments please.

Linux Hippies All Working In Unison for the Glory of The Dear Leader Comrade General Kim Jong Il™

Its been a long week, I had meant to get this out sooner before it was spotted by other K-Bloglanders, but school being what it is nevermind....

It's not often one gets to combine one's two greatest hobbies. The sad reality of being an amateur "Pyonyangologist" is that you seldom have any technology related stories about the place save how The Dear Leader Comrade General Kim Jong Il™ was able to give field guidance on the reverse engineering of a 1973 Chinese Tractor.

But I digress.  

One blog I follow on and off from time to time is Says and Shows in Pyongyang or rather Говорит и показывает Пхеньян from time to time mainly because it is in Russian. The blog is written by a Russian student who is at Kim Il Sung University and gets his Internet from The Russian Embassy.

Last week saw news of The DPRK jumping on the open source bandwagon and it seems they have released their very own version of LINUX, named Red Star or "붉은별" (And they're already at version 2.0!)

Splash Screen

The Desktop. Is that KDE? What GUI is this? Linux-nuts?

The OS uses Konqeror as it's Mail client. Interestingly we begin to see a conflict in style. North Korea is known for not assimilating English terminology as fast as their southern brothers. While you'll note the use of 검퓨터 or "computer" on the desktop, Konqeror uses the more 조선말 "electronic" (전자) "mail" (우편) to refer to Email. (usually rendered 이매일 in the South Korean variant).

Like all gooditerations of Linux there is a copy of Abi Word thrown in (or at least it's North Korean knock off) and there is even a CD/DVD writing utility included:

Perhaps the most ironic inclusion is that of The most recent version of Firefox:
 

That is of course the Mozilla Foundation's South Korea hosted download page of the Firefox browser. You will note also over the top is what I think is the login window for "내나라" (NaeNaRa), literally "My Country" which seems to be a BBS.  

With reports last year that attacks on US and South Korean sites originating from the DPRK, this seems to me to be almost a confirmation. The level of North Korea's technology sector may be small, but if it is fueled by a hard core of command line Linux hippies all working in unison for the glory of The Dear Leader Comrade General Kim Jong Il™ the rest of us had better watch out.

(Also I bet Internet banking in North Korea is way easier!)

More coverage and leggy North Korean Soldier Girls at Engadget.

Bimbo Spotted in Pyongyang

Well the banner image anyway.

 

I'll get there one day.

(Via Juche-Songun)

Shooting Kangaroos

Before you start as the speaker points out in the below video, Kangaroos are both a pest and a source of food (not just for dogs either). This is both funny and heartwarming at the same time, notwithstanding the Australian penchant for using the C-word. (You've been warned).

Feeling Skeptical

This week I was lucky enough to be invited on The Conspiracy Skeptic Podcast to talk about North and South Korea and some of the conspiracies and things that surround it - especially North Korea.

Hosted by Karl, formerly of Seoul Survivors it is a bit of an irreverant look at Supernotes, Kim Jong Il's Photoshop skills and North Korean visits to the Syrian Desert.

mp3 here. [21.0MB 1:01:00]