North Korea has a nifty new airport terminal, which comes with a nice little Internet room that for some reason seems to be without actual Internet.
A classic situation from the crazy half of the Korean peninsula.
“On two recent trips through the airport, the room's three terminals were either occupied by North Korean airport employees, making it impossible for others to use them, or were completely empty, with their keyboards removed. Attempts to open any browser with a mouse resulted in a failure to connect.”
Back in June, various outlets, showed North Korean leader Kim Jong Un taking a tour around the new terminal at Pyongyang International Airport.
And judging by the photos, it certainly resembles an airport. However, we now know that just because you slap a name on something doesn’t mean it functions as advertised.
Talmadge was forced to do some impromptu sleuthing on whether the computer terminals have ever received an interweb connection, because the reporter states airport officials were silent on the matter.
“But a quick check of the history on two of the terminals showed one was either empty or had been cleared, and the other had a record only of a visit to Naenara, the North's official website.”
As the report reminds, this is a country that stifles its population from roaming freely on the Internet anyway.
The peculiar part is that state officials actually hope to garner an influx of visitors into the hermit country with a facade of openness and communication availability.
As we previously noted, the country has aims of bringing in two million tourists by 2020 — the country currently claims to welcome 100,000 tourists per year, although that number could really be as low as 6,000.
If you do ever enter the country, fill up on all of your Internet needs now. It seems getting information over the net in North Korea is pretty much like taking a shower via a drip in the faucet.
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