Korean Job Discussion Forums

[madoka]

Looks like some of you guys would make great prisoners in China:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_technews/20110526/tc_yblog_technews/chinese-prisoners-forced-to-play-world-of-warcraft-make-money-for-guards

It's a common practice for Chinese labor camps to force prisoners to bust boulders and dig ditches, but a former inmate has recently come forward to shed some light on a little-known practice that goes on behind the scenes: virtual labor. Liu Dali spent three years in one such labor camp, and claims that after a hard day's work was completed, he and up to 300 of his fellow detainees were forced to make virtual money in online games like World of Warcraft, for the benefit of prison guards.

The guards would then use the virtual cash for their own means, including trading it for real-world money. Dali claims he overheard guards bragging that they could make close to $1,000 a day off of the efforts of the inmates, none of which ever made its way into the hands of the workers. He also claims that certain quotas were set, and that those who didn't raise enough virtual cash would be physically beaten.

Raising large amounts of credit in online games through the use of multiple accounts and individuals is known as "gold farming." The practice is typically frowned upon due to the nature of the work and the fact that those involved are usually paid very little. The problem is especially widespread in China, where the government was forced to ban the practice in 2009, though it continues to be an issue to this day. Chinese officials have denied the allegations, and insist that because playing an online game would constitute "contact with the outside world," prisoners would never be allowed to engage in such activity.

[madoka]

We need to hand this woman over to the Chinese prison system. It will be win-win for everyone:

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A New Mexico woman will serve 25 years in prison for the death of her daughter, who withered away from malnutrition and dehydration while the mother chatted and played World of Warcraft online.

The Las Cruces Sun-News reports 28-year-old Rebecca Colleen Christie was sentenced in federal court for her November 2009 conviction on second-degree murder and child abandonment charges.

Prosecutors say 3 1/2-year-old Brandi Wulf had gained just a pound and a half in the last year of her life and weighed 23 pounds when Christie called 911 on Jan. 26, 2006, to report her daughter was limp and unconscious.

Christie's ex-husband, U.S. Air Force Sgt. Derek Wulf, pleaded guilty to child neglect and will be sentenced June 15. He was stationed at Holloman Air Force Base at the time.

[World Traveler]

Seoul Warns of Latest North Korean Threat: An Army of Online Gaming Hackers

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/05/world/asia/05korea.html

SEOUL, South Korea � The North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has found a novel way of raising badly needed cash, according to the South Korean authorities: unleashing young hackers on South Korea�s immensely popular online gaming sites to find ways to rack up points convertible to cash.

Despite its decrepit economy, North Korea is believed to train an army of computer programmers and hackers. The police in Seoul said Thursday that four South Koreans and a Korean-Chinese had been arrested on charges of drawing on that army to organize a hacking squad of 30 young video gaming experts.

Working from Northern China, the police said, the squad created software that breached the servers for such popular South Korean online gaming sites as �Lineage� and �Dungeon and Fighter.� The breach allowed round-the-clock play by �factories� of dozens of unmanned computers.

Their accumulated gaming points were exchanged for cash at Web sites where human players are focused on acquiring enhancements for their online personas, or avatars. The gaming software was also sold, the police said; such factories, while illegal, are common in South Korea and China.

In a little less than two years, the police said, the organizers made $6 million. They gave 55 percent of it to the hackers, who forwarded some of it to agents in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea. �They regularly contacted North Korean agents for close consultations,� Chung Kil-hwan, a senior officer at the police agency�s International Crime Investigation Unit, said during a news briefing.

Mr. Chung said the hackers, all graduates of North Korea�s elite science universities, were dispatched from two places: the state-run Korea Computer Center in Pyongyang and the Korea Neungnado General Trading Company. The company, he said, reports to a shadowy Communist Party agency called Office 39, which gathers foreign hard currency for Mr. Kim through drug trafficking, counterfeiting, arms sales and other illicit activities.