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A North Korea state-backed English-language Twitter account was temporarily restricted Wednesday, with only a vague explanation given for the move.
As of late Wednesday, the account -- using the Twitter handle @coldnoodlefan -- carried the following message: “Caution: This account is temporarily restricted. You’re seeing this warning because there has been some unusual activity from this account. Do you still want to view it?”
Readers were then given the option of viewing the page – although the alleged “unusual activity” was not explained.
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The restriction was in place at least since Wednesday morning, NPR reported. It was unclear how long it would last.
When contacted by Fox News, Twitter said the company does not disclose specific information about user accounts, due to privacy and security concerns. It also pointed to a policy statement saying it posts notices on accounts after alleged policy violations or detections of unusual activity -- but again did not define "unusual activity."
The Cold Noodle Fan page – with more than 8,600 followers -- has been viewed as North Korea’s effort to share information with foreigners in a less overtly propagandistic way, the NK News site reported. The page is operated by Sogwang Media Corp., a state-run company, according to NK News.
NK News, founded by an American journalist, reports on news and information from the Communist nation.
The Twitter page describes itself as “Anti-war, peace advocate and unbiased news on the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] through exclusive video and photos.”
It includes a photo of a woman named Un A, who appears as a presenter on the Twitter page’s videos, speaking in English.
The messages are directed at foreigners because most North Korean citizens cannot access the Internet, NPR reported. Some of the videos appear to be efforts to deny the country has been affected by the coronavirus, the report said.
“Every building in Pyongyang is going through general cleaning to shake off winter’s dust,” Un A claims in one video, according to the news outlet.
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Many of the videos also appear on YouTube, labeled as the “Pyongyang Tour Series,” with no apparent disclaimers from YouTube about the content.
Fox News tried to reach YouTube officials after hours about the Pyongyang videos but has not yet received a response.
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