“Abetting the enemy”: the repercussions of a Website-based information campaign to assist the flood victims of North Korea

Unknown to most parts of the world, North Korea has been battling the aftermath of continuous severe floods since 1996. Rice harvests have been hit hard and about 1.7 million rural residents are in dire medical need. A joint FAO and World Food Program mission to the country in November 1997 estimated that the Communist state would need 2.36 million metric tons of food imports in 1997 to meet minimum daily nutritional requirements. In an attempt to mobilize an international flood relief effort, former Newsweek Tokyo bureau chief Bernard Krisher launched a one-man Internet drive, a venture which illustrates yet another possibility that the Internet accords: as a purveyor of information from societies traditionally isolated from the rest of the world because of political ideology. Fearing violations of its on-going economic embargo against the North, South Korea lashed out against this relief effort, arguing that the food shortage is a “by-product of North Korean policymakers that put armaments before the hunger of their people”. The Web site has attracted donations and the attention of news organizations, but Web browsers are appalled that humanitarian efforts are seemingly being blocked by governments who wish to mix food with politics. This paper looks at the geopolitical dynamics set into motion by a single Web site and explores what might happen when the Web transcends deeply ingrained ideological boundaries