Annabelle Sreberny, professor of global media and communications at London's School of Oriental and African Studies, acknowledged that social networks and blogs had proved useful to protesters in the Middle East and Asia, but cautioned against overstating Twitter's significance.

BBC: Twitter page in Farsi

Zhu Feng, a professor at the School of International Studies of Peking University, tells Global Times that Xinhua's limited coverage of the visit shows that Beijing is "not reacting warmly" to Pyongyang's attempts to engineer a summit between Kim Jong-un and Chinese leaders in Beijing.

BBC: China media: North Korea diplomacy