North Korea's social media foray has the South in a Twitter

Pyongyang's move into Twitter has prompted a game of online cat-and-mouse with Seoul as authorities in the South battle to stop their citizens following the links.

North Korea's move into Twitter has prompted a game of online cat-and-mouse with Seoul as authorities in the South battle to stop their citizens following links to Pyongyang's propaganda website. North Korea has used its Twitter feed, opened under the name @uriminzok, to post links to anti-Seoul and anti-US statements on its Uriminzokkiri website. Seoul has already blocked access to the Uriminzokkiri site, but Pyongyang has started putting different addresses on its Twitter page so users can bypass the block.

The usually secretive communist state has even put programmes on the Uriminzokkiri homepage which users can download to let them break the blockage and enter the site, which is Pyongyang's official Internet mouthpiece. South Korea's telecommunication authorities said they are monitoring the North's Twitter account "around the clock" to make sure its citizens do not view the banned propaganda website.

"We are constantly monitoring the North's Twitter account, to see if it posts any links using new domains," an official at the Korea Communications Commission said. "Whenever the North uses different routes, we will block them so that no South Korean followers will get access to the website," he said. Under the staunch anti-communist National Security Law, South Korea prohibits unauthorised communication with North Koreans and offenders can be jailed.

* AFP