North Korea's ruler and his heir apparent are scared stiff at the prospect of prodemocracy movements spreading from the Middle East and northern Africa to their home turf.
Even though the North Korean populace are said not to have access to Twitter and other modern means of communications — unlike their counterparts in countries like Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen — they appear able to obtain more information on the outside world through cell phones and other methods than is generally thought.
It is this advance in information technology within the world's most isolated state that has caused much uneasiness for Pyongyang's supreme leader Kim Jong Il and his son Kim Jong Un, who is certain to succeed the father.