The Asia Pacific is the most dynamic digital landscape in the world, home to the fastest adopters of new technologies and the largest concentration of mobile and social media users. An escalation in online activism, changing cyber dynamics, developments in digital diplomacy and the exploitation of big data are shaping the region's engagement with the world.

Even if it is just wishful attempt, we must try to blow winds of change through the small holes digital technology has made in the closed society so that North Korea can constructively change from within. We should take Kennan's advice and try to draw changes from North Korea through the use of diplomacy and soft power instead of containment and pressure.

Arguing that it had a mission to uphold the values of “democracy and liberty”, the corporation said it would set up new shortwave services to broadcast into those countries with a deficit of both, namely North Korea, Eritrea, and Ethiopia. It will boost its digital presence in Russia, where it may set up a satellite-television channel, and beef up its Arabic service. 

South Korea’s soccer chief Chung Mong-gyu will discuss reviving cross-border internationals with his North Korea counterparts on a visit to Pyongyang later this month, the Korea Football Association (KFA) said on Monday.

The BBC has unveiled a proposal to launch a radio service in North Korea, but the U.K. government will never fund it without a dramatic shift in foreign policy, experts say. "The BBC is trying to justify its public funding by showing that it can do something political that the private sector wouldn't do," said Aiden Foster-Carter, a senior research fellow specializing in both Koreas at Leeds University. 

The BBC is set to unveil proposals for a significant expansion of the BBC World Service, including potentially a satellite TV service for Russian speakers and a daily radio news programme for North Korea.