Martyn Williams
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Homepage: http://www.northkoreatech.org
Posts by Martyn Williams
State Dept. remarks on Sony hack
Dec 20th
Just as President Obama’s news conference was wrapping up, the State Department news conference was beginning.
The questions were a little more detailed, as you’d expect from reporters who understand the ins and outs of U.S. foreign relations so well. They centered around the option of putting North Korea back on the list of state sponsors of terror and what effect that might have. And they also came back to the issue of whether State Dept. officials saw the movie before and signed off on the scenes.
The reporters reference a letter sent by Senator Robert Menendez, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to Secretary More >
Obama on hack: dictators can’t impose censorship in the U.S.
Dec 20th
Hours after the FBI fingered North Korea as responsible for the cyber attack on Sony, President Obama spoke at his year-end news conference. The first question asked was regarding the Sony hack and his response to the news of North Korea’s involvement. The president spoke forcefully and strongly about Sony’s decision to pull the movie, what it means for freedom and speech and then onto broader cyberspace themes.
I’ve reproduced some of the key quotes below, and here’s the full video:
“Sony is a corporation, it suffered significant damage, there were threats against its employees. I am sympathetic to the concerns that More >
FBI blames North Korea for Sony hack
Dec 20th
The FBI has blamed North Korea for the massive cyber attack on Sony.
Here’s the agency’s statement in full:
Today, the FBI would like to provide an update on the status of our investigation into the cyber attack targeting Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE). In late November, SPE confirmed that it was the victim of a cyber attack that destroyed systems and stole large quantities of personal and commercial data. A group calling itself the “Guardians of Peace” claimed responsibility for the attack and subsequently issued threats against SPE, its employees, and theaters that distribute its movies.
The FBI has determined that the intrusion into More >
DOD on acts of war in cyberspace
Dec 20th
Friday’s news conference at the Department of Defense came before the FBI blamed North Korea for the attack on Sony, but Pentagon spokesman John Kirby did address issues surrounding cyber defense and the sticky question of what exactly is an “act of war” on the Internet.
“I’m not able to lay out in any specificity for you what would be or wouldn’t be an act of war in the cyber domain. It’s not like there is a demarkation line that exists in some sort of fixed space on what is or isn’t,” he said.
“The cyber domain remains challenging, it remains very fluid. More >
Harsh reaction follows Sony’s canceling of “The Interview”
Dec 19th
A day after Sony said it would not be releasing “The Interview” movie in theaters, on DVDs or online, reaction from Hollywood, politicians and TV commentators in the U.S. has been harsh.
The mood was perhaps summed up best by Rob Lowe:
Wow. Everyone caved. The hackers won. An utter and complete victory for them. Wow.
— Rob Lowe (@RobLowe) December 17, 2014
Seth Rogen has been quiet, probably at the request of Sony Pictures, but Rob Lowe said he had bumped into him at the airport.
Saw @Sethrogen at JFK. Both of us have never seen or heard of anything like this. Hollywood has done More >
Sony pulls ‘The Interview’
Dec 18th
So much for standing up to terrorists.
Bowing to the demands of hackers and handing them a major victory, Sony said Wednesday that it is pulling “The Interview” from movie theaters.
The movie, which was due to open on December 25, follows two American showbiz reporters offered the chance to interview Kim Jong Un. Before they leave, they are co-opted by the CIA to assassinate the North Korean leader.
Sony’s decision came a day after hackers released a database of emails belonging to Michael Lynton, CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment and with it a message threatening harm if the movie screening went ahead.
A message posted More >
US declassifies Pueblo incident narrative
Dec 15th
The U.S. Air Force has declassified part of a history of the Pueblo incident, the 1968 capture of the electronics and signals intelligence ship U.S.S. Pueblo by North Korean forces.
The document was prepared by the U.S. Air Force Security Service in April 1968 and provides a detailed narrative of the incident, with timings down to the minute, and is almost completely uncensored.
It was provided to The Government Attic website in November in response to a Freedom of Information request made in 2008. The website posted it this week.
There are lots of interesting parts to the story of the Pueblo, which More >
Pyongyang breaks silence on Sony hack
Dec 8th
Two weeks after computers at Sony Pictures were taken offline by a major hack and just over a week since North Korea was mentioned as a suspect, the country’s state media has commented for the first time and denied any involvement in the attack.
In a report on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency carried a statement from the National Defence Commission that also blamed South Korea for the suspicion.
It’s worth noting that the first report that mentioned North Korea as a suspect was published by Re/code, a San Francisco-based technology news website. South Korea doesn’t appear to have much to do More >
New Arirang smartphone caught on camera
Nov 25th
North Korea’s Arirang smartphone has been upgraded. Recent photos of one of the phones show a new model that features an updated version of Google’s Android operating system.
The phone was spotted by Aram Pan, a Singapore-based photographer who has made several trips to North Korea. He first posted them on his DPRK 360 Facebook page.
The Arirang smartphone first received publicity in August 2013 when the state news agency reported on a visit by Kim Jong Un to a cellphone factory. The “May 11 Factory” reportedly produced the phone, but it was later identified as based on the U1201 produced by China’s Uniscope Communication.
Pan’s More >
63 years of Voice of Korea in English
Nov 6th
North Korea’s English-language broadcasting service marks its 63rd birthday on Thursday, November 6. Broadcast now under the name “Voice of Korea,” the radio station was for decades known as Radio Pyongyang.
Since 1951, it’s broadcast thousands of hours of English-language programming and today remains one of the few international radio stations that still uses shortwave as its primary method of dissemination. The transmitters occupy a huge site that can easily be seen on satellite images.
Listeners can expect to find each daily hour-long broadcast kick-off with the national anthem and the songs of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il then news, music and More >
