By Lauren Dugan on August 17, 2010 2:51 PM

You Can Now Follow North Korea on Twitter and YouTube

Social media users take note: you can now follow North Korea on Twitter, or watch the government’s latest uploads on Youtube. It appears the notoriously closed country has openly embraced social media – up to a point. The United States today issued an online welcome to North Korea, but hinted that social media’s power is not in its ability to project propaganda – rather it is designed to provide transparency, connect citizens and give individuals a voice. Whether this advice will be heeded is doubtful, but you can now see for yourself by following the communist government on Twitter.

The North Korea Twitter account @uriminzok has 4,700 followers as of today, after being active for less than one week. Its 11 tweets are all in Korean, but ABC reports that they,

“threaten “merciless retaliation” against South Korea and the U.S. and call South Korean President Lee Myung-bak’s administration a “prostitute of the U.S.”"

This propaganda is coupled with over 80 Youtube videos on that condemn the “warmongers” of South Korea and the US, and disparage them for blaming North Korea for the sinking of a South Korea ship in May according to the Associated Press.

These new social media pushes from a traditionally closed country prompted a reply from the US – but not through traditional means. The US State Department’s chief spokesman, Philip Crowley, used his Twitter account to “welcome North #Korea to Twitter and the networked world”. But in a following tweet, he warned that “We use Twitter to connect, to inform, and to debate,” and questioned whether North Korea is “prepared to allow its citizens to be connected as well.”

The world will be watching to see whether social media will be used to continue the propagation of government mantras, or if it can be harnessed to give a voice to North Korean citizens and be a catalyst for change.