North Korea's propaganda campaign has surged into the 21st century with a new Twitter account, hot on the heals of its foray into video with clips posted on YouTube.
The secretive regime has begun micro-blogging under the name @uriminzok, with a number of posts pointing its few dozen followers to anti-Seoul and anti-US statements on the country's official website.
South Korea blocks the site and few in North Korea have access even to a computer.
One tweet dimissed assusations that a North Korean torpedo sank a South Korean warship in March. Another critisiced US-led sanctions on North Korea and Iran.
Most followers posted derisive comments in Korean.
Tensions on the peninsula have risen sharply since late May when South Korea and the United States, citing a multinational investigation, accused the North of attacking a South Korean warship, the Cheonan, near the contested border.
The North vehemently denies involvement in the incident.
Last month it opened an account with YouTube, a popular global video-sharing site, uploading video clips which praised leader Kim Jong-Il and denying its role in the sinking.
North Korea operates an army of elite hackers. South Korea's spy agency has said that the North was behind cyber attacks that briefly paralysed the web sites of South Korean and US government agencies and commercial organisations last year.
*AFP
What is the FNC?
The Federal National Council is one of five federal authorities established by the UAE constitution. It held its first session on December 2, 1972, a year to the day after Federation.
It has 40 members, eight of whom are women. The members represent the UAE population through each of the emirates. Abu Dhabi and Dubai have eight members each, Sharjah and Ras al Khaimah six, and Ajman, Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain have four.
They bring Emirati issues to the council for debate and put those concerns to ministers summoned for questioning.
The FNC’s main functions include passing, amending or rejecting federal draft laws, discussing international treaties and agreements, and offering recommendations on general subjects raised during sessions.
Federal draft laws must first pass through the FNC for recommendations when members can amend the laws to suit the needs of citizens. The draft laws are then forwarded to the Cabinet for consideration and approval.
Since 2006, half of the members have been elected by UAE citizens to serve four-year terms and the other half are appointed by the Ruler’s Courts of the seven emirates.
In the 2015 elections, 78 of the 252 candidates were women. Women also represented 48 per cent of all voters and 67 per cent of the voters were under the age of 40.
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