Cyber-savvy Koreas in borderless ‘micro-battle’

Source: Shin Hae-in, The Korean Herald.

“Guns and cannons may have vanished from the public’s sight, but a new form of battle is surfacing on the divided Korean Peninsula, with an apparently cyber-savvy North Korea using the Internet as a way of spreading propaganda.

North Korea opened consecutive accounts on U.S.-operated popular micro-blogging and social networking services this month, gathering thousands of “followers” and “friends” from all over the world including South Korea.

The unusual move by one of the world’s most secretive nations on Twitter and Facebook has been sparking concerns and disputes in Seoul, which has a mutual agreement with the communist North to refrain from propaganda activities.

The “cyber war” comes as tensions are running high between the two Koreas after a team of multinational experts concluded that Pyongyang torpedoed a South Korean warship and killed 46 young sailors in March.”