The Japanese NGO ReACH, which advocates for the return of abducted Japanese citizens and for human rights in North Korea, has assembled a long list of known North Korean fax numbers, which I’ve published here for all the world to see, below the fold. REACH is calling on Japan’s massive community of netizens (and you, too!) to send spam faxes to these numbers, and offers some recommendations to maximize the subversive/disruptive effect if you decide to join the fun:

– Starting with the obvious: the message should be in Korean. I have a limited capacity to translate a few of these.

– Think about how the recipient will perceive what you’re saying. Invective and insults will only reinforce xenophobic programming, and it should go without saying that few North Koreans will appreciate your biting satire. Keep the tone supportive and sympathetic.

– Keep it factual. Hyperbole and fiction are much less persuasive than facts.

– Practical and useful information is more likely to be read.

– Don’t send the same old thing to the same fax a hundred times. Let a hundred flowers bloom.

– In North Korea, it’s illegal to throw away anything with an image of Kim Jong Il or Kim Il Sung. Imagine how confused they’ll be receiving a fax with a picture of Kim Jong Il like this one. While anecdotal information suggests that most North Koreans have little use for Kim Jong Il, there’s still plenty of residual reverence for Kim Il Sung. If I were designing a fax to send, I’d concentrate on His Porcine Majesty as a propaganda foil: health and succession rumors, his opulent lifestyle, and reports of the severity of the famine (residents of Pyongyang may still not realize how bad the famine was in other parts of the country).

– The grand prize in this contest is a return fax, a letter, message, or other verified confirmation that someone is reading your information. If that happens, I’d love to know, but for God’s sake don’t post which numbers fax you back anywhere on the net (if a number is non-working, drop me a line and I’ll take it off the list). In theory, if we can come up with a list of numbers that are actually receiving the information, it would be possible to send regular summaries of news reports to Pyongyang’s samizdat grapevine.

You have to admit that the targeting here is a lot more precise than those leaflet balloons. REACH is asking for your best designs, so feel free to e-mail them to me (see third sidebar) and I’ll forward them along. I’ll post the best ones here.

Below are the known fax numbers. Some of them may already be shut down.

(850: country code / North Korea, 2: city code / Pyongyang, 381: area code)

850-2-381-2100

850-2-381-4007

850-2-381-4010

850-2-381-4020

850-2-381-4021

850-2-381-4031

850-2-381-4033

850-2-381-4034

850-2-381-4035

850-2-381-4041

850-2-381-4042

850-2-381-4043

850-2-381-4047

850-2-381-4050

850-2-381-4051

850-2-381-4056

850-2-381-4060

850-2-381-4066

850-2-381-4067

850-2-381-4071

850-2-381-4074

850-2-381-4075

850-2-381-4080

850-2-381-4083

850-2-381-4096

850-2-381-4098

850-2-381-4150

850-2-381-4316

850-2-381-4377

850-2-381-4405

850-2-381-4407

850-2-381-4408

850-2-381-4411

850-2-381-4412

850-2-381-4413

850-2-381-4418

850-2-381-4422

850-2-381-4426

850-2-381-4431

850-2-381-4432

850-2-381-4435

850-2-381-4440

850-2-381-4440

850-2-381-4443

850-2-381-4444

850-2-381-4445

850-2-381-4446

850-2-381-4448

850-2-381-4449

850-2-381-4451

850-2-381-4454

850-2-381-4461

850-2-381-4462

850-2-381-4464

850-2-381-4467

850-2-381-4470

850-2-381-4474

850-2-381-4475

850-2-381-4476

850-2-381-4477

850-2-381-4479

850-2-381-4482

850-2-381-4488

850-2-381-4489

850-2-381-4489

850-2-381-4490

850-2-381-4493

850-2-381-4494

850-2-381-4495

850-2-381-4498

850-2-381-4502

850-2-381-4505

850-2-381-4506

850-2-381-4507

850-2-381-4508

850-2-381-4517

850-2-381-4525

850-2-381-4526

850-2-381-4527

850-2-381-4528

850-2-381-4531

850-2-381-4531

850-2-381-4533

850-2-381-4534

850-2-381-4536

850-2-381-4538

850-2-381-4542

850-2-381-4543

850-2-381-4546

850-2-381-4548

850-2-381-4549

850-2-381-4551

850-2-381-4558

850-2-381-4560

850-2-381-4563

850-2-381-4565

850-2-381-4567

850-2-381-4569

850-2-381-4574

850-2-381-4576

850-2-381-4581

850-2-381-4585

850-2-381-4592

850-2-381-4597

850-2-381-4603

850-2-381-4606

850-2-381-4607

850-2-381-4608

850-2-381-4611

850-2-381-4615

850-2-381-4617

850-2-381-4618

850-2-381-4619

850-2-381-4621

850-2-381-4621

850-2-381-4621

850-2-381-4622

850-2-381-4623

850-2-381-4624

850-2-381-4626

850-2-381-4627

850-2-381-4629

850-2-381-4632

850-2-381-4633

850-2-381-4637

850-2-381-4642

850-2-381-4644

850-2-381-4646

850-2-381-4647

850-2-381-4648

850-2-381-4651

850-2-381-4652

850-2-381-4652

850-2-381-4652

850-2-381-4657

850-2-381-4660

850-2-381-4663

850-2-381-4665

850-2-381-4668

850-2-381-4670

850-2-381-4672

850-2-381-4674

850-2-381-4676

850-2-381-4677

850-2-381-4679

850-2-381-4685

850-2-381-4687

850-2-381-4688

850-2-381-4691

850-2-381-4692

850-2-381-4695

850-2-381-4707

850-2-381-4709

850-2-381-4712

850-2-381-4715

850-2-381-4715

850-2-381-4718

850-2-381-4720

850-2-381-4722

850-2-381-4723

850-2-381-4726

850-2-381-4728

850-2-381-4732

850-2-381-4734

850-2-381-4737

850-2-381-4745

850-2-381-4747

850-2-381-4748

850-2-381-4750

850-2-381-4755

850-2-381-4757

850-2-381-4759

850-2-381-4760

850-2-381-4765

850-2-381-4770

850-2-381-4771

850-2-381-4772

850-2-381-4774

850-2-381-4777

850-2-381-4783

850-2-381-4785

850-2-381-4788

850-2-381-4793

850-2-381-4795

850-2-381-4799

850-2-381-5274

850-2-381-7607