--- title: ALS Ice Bucket Challenge in North Korea description: Internet access in North Korea is notoriously limited, but the viral ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has entered its borders. canonical: https://time.com/3264331/als-ice-bucket-challenge-north-korea/ author: Jack Linshi article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-03T16:37:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:12:56.725Z og:title: ALS Ice Bucket Challenge Has Been Done in North Korea og:description: Almost no one in North Korea—where the average person can't access Internet—knows what it is og:url: https://time.com/3264331/als-ice-bucket-challenge-north-korea/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt88af370de58a2b72/6986a1d055a859589aa82658/north-korea-als-ice-bucket-challenge-pras-michel.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4801 og:image:height: 2701 og:image:alt: ALS Ice Bucket Challenge North Korea Pras Michel og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: ALS Ice Bucket Challenge Has Been Done in North Korea twitter:description: Almost no one in North Korea—where the average person can't access Internet—knows what it is twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt88af370de58a2b72/6986a1d055a859589aa82658/north-korea-als-ice-bucket-challenge-pras-michel.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # ALS Ice Bucket Challenge Takes Place in North Korea > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Jack Linshi](https://time.com/author/jack-linshi/)  ## Jack Linshi Sep 3, 2014 4:37 PM UTC  Two-time Grammy award winning rapper and a founding member of the Fugees, Pras Michel, gets doused by his friends for the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, Sunday, Aug. 31, 2014 in Pyongyang, North Korea. Two-time Grammy award winning rapper and a founding member of the Fugees, Pras Michel, gets doused by his friends for the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, Sunday, Aug. 31, 2014 in Pyongyang, North Korea. Wong Maye-E—Associated Press  by [Jack Linshi](https://time.com/author/jack-linshi/)  ## Jack Linshi Sep 3, 2014 4:37 PM UTC Internet access in North Korea may be [limited to “super-elites,”](http://world.time.com/2013/01/09/in-north-korea-google-exec-sees-an-internet-open-for-the-very-few/) but that hasn’t stopped the viral [ALS Ice Bucket Challenge](http://time.com/3136507/als-ice-bucket-challenge-started/) from penetrating the Hermit Kingdom. Two-time Grammy-winning rapper Pras Michel completed the challenge along Pyongyang’s Taedong River last week, while many North Koreans, unaware of the challenge, looked on with confusion, surprise and laughter, [according to](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/als-ice-bucket-challenge-arrives-north-korea) the _Associated Press_. Michel, a founding member of the hip-hop group Fugees, said he passed on the challenge to four people, including former Fugees bandmate Lauryn Hill and Prince Harry. Michel, who was in Pyongyang to watch a pro wrestling exhibition, said he’d decided that completing the challenge in North Korea would put a unique spin on his take. “I thought I’d put a little twist to it,” he told _AP._ “When we go to places, my crew, we stick out. You can tell instantly these guys aren’t from this neck of the woods. But the people have been good to us.” Donations from the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge [topped $100 million](http://time.com/3222224/als-ice-bucket-challenge-donations-million/) last week. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3264331/als-ice-bucket-challenge-north-korea/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3264331/als-ice-bucket-challenge-north-korea/"},"headline":"ALS Ice Bucket Challenge Takes Place in North Korea","datePublished":"2014-09-03T16:37:09.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:12:56.725Z","description":"Almost no one in North Korea—where the average person can't access Internet—knows what it is","url":"https://time.com/3264331/als-ice-bucket-challenge-north-korea/","keywords":["Newsfeed","North Korea","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt88af370de58a2b72/6986a1d055a859589aa82658/north-korea-als-ice-bucket-challenge-pras-michel.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jack Linshi","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jack-linshi/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt88af370de58a2b72/6986a1d055a859589aa82658/north-korea-als-ice-bucket-challenge-pras-michel.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"ALS Ice Bucket Challenge North Korea Pras Michel","caption":"ALS Ice Bucket Challenge North Korea Pras Michel","creditText":"Wong Maye-E—Associated Press","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3264331/als-ice-bucket-challenge-north-korea/","name":"ALS Ice Bucket Challenge Takes Place in North Korea"}}]}] ```