Technology
Glorious Leader video game plots North Korean tale
May 16th
An Atlanta-based start-up game studio has set North Korea as the ambitious target of its first video game.
Moneyhorse Games revealed some demonstration gameplay video and screenshots from the game, “Glorious Leader,” earlier this week. It’s due out towards the end of 2014 and will be available on Android and possibly other platforms, according to Jeff Miller, who runs the company.
Miller said his inspiration for the game came from an interest with North Korea.
Gamers will play the role of Kim Jong Un who, as he prepares to play a friendly basketball game against Dennis Rodman and friends, is forced to give up More >
Pyongyang through Google Glass
May 16th
North Korea got what might have been its first look at Google Glass in April.
That’s when Kenny Zhu went on a four-day trip and recorded various video and photo scenes with the high-tech pair of glasses. Zhu later supplied some of the pictures and video to CNN through its iReport website.
CNN said Zhu visited the DPRK for work, although he seems to have taken in many of the major tourist attractions, including a trip to Kaesong and Panmunjon.
North Korean officials are sometimes skittish about photography so it will be interesting to see if they remain tolerant to Google Glass. Zhu told CNN that More >
Review: The North Korea travel app
May 16th
Whether you’re heading to Pyongyang on an organized tour or fancy a spot of armchair North Korean travel, there’s now an app for that.
Last week, London-based Uniquely Travel launched what it calls the “ultimate travel guide” to the DPRK. The app, available for iOS and Android, contains details on just over 350 items of interest for tourists, including hotels, restaurants, museums and beauty spots.
You can delve into the entries in the app in two ways. One is through a comprehensive alphabetical list organized by category and the other is by region, divided by North Korean county and then major cities.
The app provides More >
US State Dept. puts out call for North Korea projects
Apr 16th
The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL) put out a call Tuesday for projects aimed at human rights and democracy in North Korea.
DRL will fund winning proposals with grants of up to $350,000 per organization and groups have until May 13, 2014, to complete and submit their proposals.
Proposals can cover a broad range of areas, but the DRL advised they should “include activities that support recommendations from the recently released report from the Commission of Inquiry on North Korea and/or DPRK’s Universal Periodic Review.”
These could include projects that increase awareness and advocacy for North Korean human rights, More >
Red Star 3.0 desktop images posted
Mar 3rd
If you want to give your computer desktop a touch of North Korea’s Red Star Linux without installing the operating system, now you can.
Will Scott, the computer scientist who brought back a copy of the new operating system last year, has posted the desktop background images from Red Star 3.0 to a Google+ album.
The look and feel of Red Star has been updated to resemble closely that of Apple’s Mac OS X, but the desktop backgrounds have a distinctly North Korean feel.
There are eight in the set, including this one below, and you can download individual images or grab the More >
North Korea’s Red Star OS goes Mac
Jan 31st
Poor Microsoft. It seems North Korea doesn’t like the traditional Windows-look anymore.
The latest version of the country’s home-grown operating system, Red Star Linux, has been restyled and ships with a desktop that closely resembles Apple’s Mac OSX. The previous version was based on the popular KDE desktop that mimicked that of Windows 7.
Red Star Linux was developed by the Korea Computer Center (KCC), a major center of software programming in Pyongyang, and is based on Linux, the open-source operating system originally developed by Linus Torvalds.
Open-source software is offered to the world under a license that allows anyone to adapt and More >
Internet access, computers and high-tech life at PUST
Jan 30th
Will Scott, a computer scientist from Washington state, just returned from several months as a guest lecturer at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST).
In an interview with North Korea Tech and in posts on Reddit, Scott spoke about what it’s like to be at PUST.
This is part two of a three-part series. Part one published yesterday covered life at PUST and part three looks at North Korea’s Red Star Linux.
A computer terminal at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology shows a web page (Will Scott)
When PUST was first proposed, the school said it was intending to use a satellite More >
Experiences of a PUST teacher
Jan 29th
Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) is one of the more ambitious international ventures in North Korea of the last few years.
Almost ten years in planning, PUST is the country’s first privately-run university and backed with funds from evangelical Christian organizations in the U.S. and overseas.
It currently has several hundred students and guest lecturers make semester-long commitments to PUST and travel from overseas to teach students.
One such lecturer, Will Scott from Washington state, has just returned from the university.
Through a series of posts on Reddit and in emails with North Korea Tech, Scott provided a glimpse into what it’s More >
FBI updates FISA notice as Tsai case continues
Jan 20th
The U.S. government’s case against two Taiwanese businessmen accused of attempting to illegally exporting machinery to North Korea continues its slow path towards a trial.
Hsien Tai “Alex” Tsai, 67, and his son, Yueh Hsun “Gary” Tsai, 36, were arrested and charged in May last year. Alex Tsai was in Estonia at the time and subsequently extradited to the U.S.
The Federal Bureau of Investigations laid out in indictments a plan to obtain and export precision metal fabrication equipment from the U.S. with assistance of several companies in Taiwan. The machinery could be used in the production of weapons of mass destruction, according to the More >
Samjiyon appears again on Ebay, price drops to $425
Nov 29th
Enthusiasm appears to be waning for North Korea’s Samjiyon Android tablet.
Two of the tablets have appeared again on Ebay and were offered by the same vendor who sold one two weeks ago.
This time, it attracted fewer bids and sold for far less than the $546 winning bid of the first Samjiyon to appear on Ebay.
That was sold on November 17 by “aquasuede@yahoo.com,” who was identified in an Ebay profile as a Canadian user. The tablet was being shipped from Yanji, China, which is close to the North Korean border.
The Ebay profile page for that email address user now redirects to user More >
