42°Good Morning
North Koreans gather Monday after learning of the death Saturday...

North Koreans gather Monday after learning of the death Saturday of a man who asked to be called Dear Leader, Kim Jong Il. Kim died apparently of a heart attack Saturday while on a train. The government announced his death early Monday in Pyongyang, North Korea. (Dec. 19, 2011) Credit: AP

SEOUL, South Korea -- Few national leaders die these days with no one outside their country knowing about it.

For more than 48 hours. Not even a mention on Twitter.

Yet apparently no one, including South Korean intelligence services, was aware that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il had died early on Saturday -- until his passing was tearfully announced on state television early Monday.

That medium itself appears antiquated in South Korea, frequently cited as the most wired country on the planet, where news is increasingly delivered and dissected via smartphone and social networking services.

A nighttime image of the Korean peninsula taken by an intelligence satellite in 2002 shows North Korea as a pool of darkness, in stark contrast to the blazing sea of light that is its prosperous southern neighbor on the other side of the world's most heavily militarized border.

A decade later, little has changed.

Kim's death appears to have been kept a close secret within a tight coterie at the top of the reclusive North. There was no stream of Facebook or Twitter posts to spread the news as with the "Arab Spring".

South Korea's Internet users, accustomed to a near-instantaneous flow of information, were nearly as struck by the delay in the announcement as the news itself.

"The depth of information that South Korean intelligence sources have [on the North] is shallower than that of Twitter," posted user LinkstArc, referring to the popular microblogging service. "It's very regrettable that the government only found out about Kim's death two days later."

"The current government's hostile policy toward the North has resulted in a shutdown of communication channels with the North, and China raising its influence over Pyongyang," chimed in user EuiQKIM.

The North Korean regime's chokehold on information is made relatively easy by the country's limited communications infrastructure, making an Arab Spring-type scenario almost impossible, analysts say.

According to International Telecommunications Union data, North Korea had fewer than two mobile phone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants last year. South Korea had 105.

While 83 percent of South Koreans have regular Internet access, it remains unavailable in the North outside a handful of government ministries, hotels and diplomatic enclaves in Pyongyang.

North Koreans with mobile phone and Internet access are "pro-government, pro-regime. They have nothing to gain from trying to organize an uprising. So, in that sense, it's hardly a useful anti-regime tool," said Cho Min, an expert at the Korea Institute for National Unification.

Agencies with contacts in Pyongyang said Kim's death was likely to prompt the authorities to tighten their grip on communications even further.

"We're expecting some form of lockdown on communications and travel in the immediate period as North Korean authorities move to stabilize the situation and prepare for mourning," said Geoffrey See, managing director at Chosun Exchange, a Singapore-based nonprofit group that promotes academic exchanges with North Korea.

There are some signs, however, that the regime's control on communications may be slipping. Mobiles are now increasingly commonplace among Pyongyang residents, and not just among the regime elite, said Simon Cockerell of Beijing-based Koryo Tours, which operates trips to North Korea.

In the last couple of years, mobile phone use has "just exploded," he said, with people often using midrange, China-made handsets to trade SMS messages, play games and browse weather reports.

North Korea is this year expected to register the 1 millionth user of its new 3G mobile network, built in partnership with Egypt's Orascom.

The North's mobile communications industry "has crossed the Rubicon, and the government can no longer roll it back without paying a severe political price," the Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainability said in a report last month.

Video Player is loading.
Current Time 0:00
Duration 0:00
Loaded: 0%
Stream Type LIVE
Remaining Time 0:00
 
1x
    • Chapters
    • descriptions off, selected
    • captions off, selected
      Get the latest news and more great videos at NewsdayTV Credit: Newsday

      Updated 54 minutes ago Hempstead bus camera lawsuit ... Eat your way through Wegmans ... Visiting Hicks flower show ... Get the latest news and more great videos at NewsdayTV

      Video Player is loading.
      Current Time 0:00
      Duration 0:00
      Loaded: 0%
      Stream Type LIVE
      Remaining Time 0:00
       
      1x
        • Chapters
        • descriptions off, selected
        • captions off, selected
          Get the latest news and more great videos at NewsdayTV Credit: Newsday

          Updated 54 minutes ago Hempstead bus camera lawsuit ... Eat your way through Wegmans ... Visiting Hicks flower show ... Get the latest news and more great videos at NewsdayTV

          SUBSCRIBE

          Unlimited Digital AccessOnly 25¢for 6 months

          ACT NOWSALE ENDS SOON | CANCEL ANYTIME