Martyn Williams
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Homepage: http://www.northkoreatech.org
Posts by Martyn Williams
North Koreans to soon loose access to South Korean TV
Nov 6th
South Korea’s impending closure of analog television broadcasts will cut off one of the few uncensored sources of information available to North Korean citizens.
South Korea, like many countries, is coming towards the end of a transition from analog to digital broadcasting and ending analog transmissions region by region.
The process began in August but didn’t affect North Korean viewers until October 25, when analog TV was switched off in Gangwon province. The second stage that will affect North Korea is the final step in the process, when analog TV in the Seoul metropolitan area and Gyonggi province will end on December More >
Diving into AirKoryo’s new website
Nov 4th
It’s been a couple of weeks since Air Koryo’s new web site make headlines. Much has been written about the site, but not much of substance.
A lot of the stories have noted the airline’s one-star rating on Skytrax, a web site which generates ranking from user reviews, although it should be noted there are plenty of positive reviews on the site. No one’s talking about the booking web site yet so there’s not much to go on, but it does have a couple of technical problems.
The site appears to be running on its own web server in Pyongyang. That’s interesting More >
Voice of Korea winter 2012/13 schedule
Oct 31st
Many international radio stations, including the Voice of Korea, just made their semi-annual schedule change to accomodate seasonal broadcasting conditions.
The radio station broadcasts two programs a day, each around 57 minutes long. Program one is carried on broadcasts aimed at South East Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, South Africa and Central and South America. Program two is carried on broadcasts for Europe, North America and North East Asia.
Each of these programs includes the same core features: the news, editorials and the reminiscences of Kim Il Sung. Music and other features sometimes differ between the two broadcasts.
They broadly follow More >
Japanese flat-screen TVs on evening news
Oct 10th
North Korea’s main evening news bulletin reported on Saturday evening about big-screen Japanese televisions.
The report was contained as one of the brief foreign news items sometimes included at the end of the program and followed reports about a speech made by the Russian foreign minister at the UN General Assembly and a protest in Okinawa against the deployment by U.S. forces of Osprey aircraft.
The LCD TV report appears to contain footage of Sony and Panasonic televisions and looks like it was shot at the IFA consumer electronics, which took place in Berlin in late August and early September. That makes More >
Visiting Tokyo’s Korean Book Center
Oct 9th
There aren’t many places in the world outside of North Korea that you can just walk in and peruse DPRK propaganda, but Tokyo’s Korea Book Center is one place that you can.
It was a place I never managed to get to when I lived in Tokyo, so I decided to visit last week when I was back in Japan.
I had imagined the place would be bigger, but it’s really no larger than an average size room. (Click images below for larger versions)
There are three lines of bookcases with books in Korean and Japanese. There’s also some audiovisual content, which I’ll More >
WFP video from Anju, Wonsan
Oct 9th
In my daily monitoring of North Korean news and information I come across a wide range of material, much of it reported and posted by general-interest North Korean blogs like NK News or North Korean Economy Watch.
From time-to-time I come across something that isn’t so widely publicized, usually with a tech-angle that I post on here.
Over the weekend I was catching up on some North Korean reading and came across video released by the World Food Programme of recent conditions in Anju and Wonsan. There isn’t a tech-theme to the video, but it’s unlike much of what comes out of North Korea More >
Orascom CEO back in Pyongyang
Oct 6th
The CEO of Egypt’s Orascom Telecom Media and Technology (OTMT), which owns 75 percent of North Korea’s sole 3G cellular operator, is back in Pyongyang, according to KCNA. [Updated. See below]
The North Korean news agency said Naguib Sawiris arrived on October 4 with four colleagues. It provided a couple of pictures of Sawiris and his party at the airport.
From the airport, Sawiris went to the Mansudae Art Studio where he visited the equestrian statues of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il and paid his respects. He laid a bouquet and “paid tribute to the peerlessly great persons,” according to the KCNA report.
Later More >
China modernized North Korea’s TV news
Oct 1st
The sudden refresh of North Korea’s staid state TV evening news appears be thanks to help from China’s state TV broadcaster.
China Central Television, the government-run broadcaster of China, donated 5 million yuan (about US$800,000) of equipment to North Korea’s Korea Central Television to help improve its news broadcasts, according to a Chinese news report.
There are very few details of the deal except for a single Chinese-language report and a piece from the Korea Central News Agency.
Here’s the North Korean report:
Pyongyang, September 26 (KCNA) — The Chinese Central TV donated equipment to the Central Broadcasting Committee of Korea. A donating ceremony took place here More >
New! The North Korean YouTube List
Sep 30th
On the right of the home page you’ll find a link to a new resource on North Korea Tech: a listing YouTube channels associated with North Korea.
The first North Korea-related channel came online in 2006 and more have followed. In the last couple of years the posting of videos by Uriminzokkiri, the Pyongyang-linked site based in China, and the government-run KCNA news agency has increased the amount of official video online.
There a four major channels that have attracted the vast majority of views and then a handful of smaller ones.
I’ve also listed four additional channels that provide a more analytical More >
More from the Pyongyang trade fair
Sep 29th
Earlier I wrote about a new Android tablet computer called Samjiyon that was on show at the 8th Pyongyang Autumn International Trade Fair. Some of the images came from a KCNA video that also included some other highlights from the fair, including other pieces of technology.
The fair lasted from Monday to Thursday and including, according to KCNA, “more than 210 companies and entities from 10 odd countries and regions, including the DPRK, China, Netherlands and Germany.”
Here’s some screen grabs from the report (click the images for a larger version).
First refrigerators from what appears to be China’s Shangling Electric Appliances. One of More >
