Ontario man stumbles upon “mind-boggling” North Korean state TV broadcasts

North Korea is one of the most isolated and secretive countries in the world. Its 26 million residents are cut off from the outside world, while North Korea’s government is extremely selective about what it chooses to show to outsiders.

Despite all of this, an Ontario man was able to tune in to a live feed of North Korean state television.

Global's Jeff Semple speaks with Peter Fairlie about how he stumbled upon the network and what he saw.

#GlobalNews

[jahjoeka]

Guy was trying to get free cable and found North Korea 😂

[GoodKingMort]

‘He started watching and couldn’t stop’

He’s now a proud North Korean citizen.

This broadcast engineer must be seething that they called his parabolic disc a "backyard satellite" lmao

[spykewyn]

"Yeah, so I was trying to steal the Olympics, and I accidentally picked up North Korea." Wild.

[Dellaluna]

The pressing question: Did the boat driver not notice he had plenty of room to steer well away from that tree?

[BarryHoffman-go]

He didn't "HACK" into it. He just picked up the satellite broadcast on his satellite receiver.

[greenworkstu]

For clarification, this man is perfectly stable and not suicidal.

[firstandforemost]

What really amazes me is that anybody was so determined to watch the Olympics.

[loonesworld]

So frickin surreal.. their tv shows look like 1980 and 2005 at the same time

[joedellinger]

In the 1980’s a Stanford student figured out how to pirate the signal from the USSR satellites broadcasting to Siberia. It was piped onto the Stanford University cable TV network. We watched the Gorbachev era take hold, live, it was amazing!

My favorite was the first ever live call-in program. They did not know to screen the callers. Caller after caller said “I don’t believe this is live and I don’t believe random citizens could be allowed on national TV”. The host ended up holding his watch up to the camera and saying “SEE, THIS IS THE CURRENT TIME! Don’t call in UNLESS YOU HAVE A QUESTION!”.

[gordonleslie]

It wasn't "hacked".. it's a freely available propaganda channel.

[bryanjensen]

If you're caught watching Seinfeld in North Korea it's no soup for you....literally.

[tytoguardian]

“He started watching and couldn’t stop.”
OH MY GOD!! HE’S BEEN BRAINWASHED BY THE NORTH KOREAN GOVERNMENT!!

[acommon]

This is not a satellite guys. This is a satellite dish. Completely different things.

It's like calling your tire a car.

[mdogzino]

With a dish that big he should be catching alien telecommunications.

[jackharper]

That’s not a satellite. It’s a satellite dish. 🤦🏼‍♂️

[oddballskull]

Them: Provoking fan frenzies, reminiscent of

Me: hitler

Them: Taylor swift

Me: never mind

[Nino-icib]

"Controlling the publics mind has been the fundamental focus of the regime" Gee, sounds familiar

[jamess]

Being from Ontario he immediately apologized to anyone he might have offended.

[manuellubian]

As the friend of a former cable company employee, as well as a former tape editor I think the bigger question is supposedly just how could someone randomly pick up on the foreign transmission signal. I guess what I am concerned about is how did that signal manage to NOT get picked up by the FCC, 1st, as an intrusion into our signaling network?