Andrew Lee is an American entrepreneur who founded the popular VPN service Private Internet Access back in 2010. He’s also
- Pretender to the Korean throne
- Sovereign of the Josean cyberstate
Um…what?
The Korean Throne
Korea – definitely South, only in jest North – is a democracy. Emperor Sunjong was the last monarch of Korea, before the peninsula was annexed by the Empire of Japan in 1910. Following liberation, the monarchy was never re-established and Korea was partitioned into North and South in 1948.
The rulers of the last dynasty of Korea were known as the House of Yi. Yi Seok is one of the members of this house. In modern Korea, this grants him no power at all, but if the Korean monarchy was ever re-established and if the House of Yi was put in power again, then Yi Seok is in line. Exactly where he would be is a matter of riotous contention, but he at least has a plausible claim.
In October 2018, Yi Seok adopted Andrew Lee, making him the Crown Prince of Korea. Yi Seok later “abdicated” leaving Andrew Lee the presumptive – if contested – heir to the Korean throne.
Of course, since there is no monarchy and no realistic prospect of it ever being re-established, this is all a bit of fantasy. It’s like if I was adopted by Princess Margareta of Romania and thus claimed to be the Crown Prince of Romania. Unless Romania decides to reestablish a monarchy, it’s like buying a square foot of land in Scotland and claiming a Scottish royal title.
To be honest, though, if someone came up to me and said “I’d like to adopt you and then you can claim to be the Crown Prince of Korea,” I’d probably do it.
The Josean Cybernation
The Josean State existed for over 500 years and spanned the Korean peninsula. It was replaced by the Korean empire in 1897, which itself was extinguished by the Japanese in 1910.
In the early 2020s, Andrew Lee founded the Josean Cyberstate. It has no physical territory and describes itself as a “cloud-based, blockchain-backed kingdom.” It has created its own cryptocurrency called Mun (JSM), intended as a national currency.
These sort of microstates are not unusual and there are dozens – maybe hundreds – of made-up states. Most are people who declare their backyard sovereign (though some have a more unusual history). They have no international recognition.
The thing with the Josean Cyberstate, however, is that…it does. A little. In 2023, the government of Antigua and Barbuda signed an agreement establishing diplomatic relations with Joseon, which the organization cites as recognition.
The fact that shortly thereafter, the Josean Cyberstate donated $1.5 million to Antigua and Barbuda to build schools may have something to do with this.
JC is also in negotiations with Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Mongolia.
raindog308 is a longtime community LETizen, technical writer, and self-described techno polymath. With deep roots in the *nix world, he has a passion for systems both modern and vintage, ranging from Unix, Perl, Python, and Golang to shell scripting and mainframe-era operating systems like MVS. He’s equally comfortable with relational database systems, having spent years working with Oracle, PostgreSQL, and MySQL.
As an avid user of LowEndBox providers, raindog308 runs an empire of LEBs, from tiny boxes for VPNs, to mid-sized instances for application hosting, and heavyweight servers for data storage and complex databases. He brings both technical rigor and real-world experience to every piece he writes.
Beyond the command line, raindog308 has a life-long love of German Shepherd Dogs, high-quality knives, target shooting, theology, tabletop RPGs, playing guitar, and hiking in deep, quiet forests.
His goal with every article is to help users, from beginners to seasoned sysadmins, get more value, performance, and enjoyment out of their infrastructure.
You can find him daily in the forums at LowEndTalk under the handle @raindog308.
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