North Korea's official Twitter and Flickr accounts have been hacked, reportedly as part of "hacktivist" group Anonymous's efforts to disrupt the Communist country's Web presence.
The attackers targeted North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in a series of tweets and photos that portray him in a less-than-flattering light.
Five tweets from @uriminxok were sent between 10:45 and 11:20 p.m. Wednesday. Most included a simple message - "Hacked" - accompanied by links to various North Korean websites. One said "Tango Down" with a link to the country's Flickr page.
The group uploaded four images to North Korea's official Flickr photostream, including a fake "Wanted" poster, depicting Jong-un with pig ears and a snout, and text that said: "Threatening world peace with ICBMs and Nuclear weapons/Wasting money while his people starve to death/ Concentration Camps and the worst human rights violation in the world." The photo offers a bogus $1 million reward.
Anonymous contended in a Wednesday Pastebin message that they have "a few guys on the ground" in North Korea, who "managed to bring the real internet into the country using a chain of long distance Wi-Fi repeaters with proprietary frequencies, so they're not jammed (yet)." The group said it also has access to North Korean landlines that connected to Kwangmyong, the country's national Intranet.
"To the citizens of North Korea we suggest to rise up and bring those mother******s of a oppressive government down!" Anonymous wrote. "We are holding your back and your hand, while you take the journey to freedom, democracy and peace. Do not fear us, we are not terrorist, we are the good guys from the internet."
The group also has some more low-brow aspirations with its hacks. "We gonna inject the kittens and porn into their network," the hackers wrote, "because North Korean citizens wanna see lulzy kittehs and hawt pr0n too."
The group also claimed to have hacked Uriminzokkiri.com, allegedly stealing more than 15,000 passwords from the news outlet. The North Korean website is currently offline.
Tensions in the Asian country remain high, as North Korea today threatened the U.S. by authorizing its military to conduct a nuclear strike, Bloomberg reported.