North Korean media coverage of Jang’s departure
Dec 10th
North Korea’s state media revealed in stunning detail on Monday the alleged infractions of Jang Song Thaek and showed still images of his being led from a Worker’s Party of Korea meeting by soldiers.
The reports, which are unprecedented for North Korea, came just less than a week after South Korea’s National Intelligence Service reported to lawmakers in Seoul that he had been removed from power.
Here’s how state TV made the announcement.
Still images of Jang being led away are shown around the 8:40 mark.
And here’s the same story in English, as broadcast on Voice of Korea. The news begins at the More >
WRN ending Voice of Korea on-demand audio
Dec 5th
High-quality audio streams from the Voice of Korea, North Korea’s international broadcaster, will soon be gone from the web.
The recordings, which are available in five languages, have been offered by London-based World Radio Network since July this year, but the company is shutting down its on-demand service on December 15.
The move is part of an effort by WRN to refocus its efforts on its core service aimed at radio stations. WRN carries programming from major international broadcasters such as Deutsche Welle, KBS World Radio, Radio Prague and Radio New Zealand and redistributes them to AM and FM stations around the world. The online service More >
DPRK joins maritime satellite organization
Dec 4th
North Korea recently joined an international organization that overseas safety and security satellite communications services for mariners.
The country became the 98th nation to join the International Maritime Satellite Organization (IMSO) when it acceded on October 15, according to a statement from the organization.
The IMSO is charged with overseeing public safety and security services on the Inmarsat series of satellites. Inmarsat operates a global network of satellites primarily aimed at the world’s oceans, which are areas where traditional satellite services don’t have great coverage.
Among the services under the remit of the IMSO is that of the Long Range Identification and Tracking (LRIT) More >
South Korean Defense Ministry’s radio station off air
Nov 30th
A radio transmitting station in Seoul. File photo.
MND Radio, a shortwave radio station run by South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense, appears to have left the air.
The station was last heard broadcasting on October 31st. Since then, it hasn’t been detected by radio monitors in East Asia or further afield.
MND Radio first appeared in late 2011 and broadcast a handful a hour-long programs several times a day.
The station name, the organization behind it or any other details were ever announced on air, but details leaked through documents submitted to an international shortwave broadcasting coordination body.
Aside from the obvious similarity between 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 >
Is this a South Korean propaganda radio station?
Nov 25th
Driving up South Korea’s “freedom highway” north of Seoul, just after the turn off for the National Defense University, observant travelers will notice a collection of transmitter masts off to the right of the highway.
At first glance, the site looks like it might belong to a major broadcaster like KBS, but the truth appears to be much more interesting.
Seeing inside the site is impossible from the highway, but a neighboring hill provides a good outlook, as shown below.
The site contains 16 transmitter masts, all but one of which are contained in a large field. A single mast sits in the middle More >
KCNA web traffic uncovered
Nov 23rd
A Washington, D.C.-based journalist and blogger has managed to obtain details on web traffic to the Korean Central News Agency’s website thanks to poor security on a previous version of the site.
Writing on his blog, Dino Beslagic said he was able to access the site traffic data through a hidden interface page on the KCNA website. Rather than block off access with a firewall, the site allowed access to the page after simply acknowledged a pop-up window.
Access to the data enabled Beslagic to produce a graph of daily visitors and number of hits for the period from April 2011 to More >
Samjiyon tablet sells for $546 in Ebay auction
Nov 21st
A North Korean Samjiyon (삼지연) tablet computer sold for the impressive price of $546 on Ebay.
The tablet first appeared on the site on November 7 with an opening bid of $4.15 — a likely reference to the April 15 birthday of Kim Il Sung — and attracted 53 bids over 10 days.
The Samjiyon, which appears to be available in several versions, has been reportedly sold to tourists for between $200 and $250, so the Ebay price represents somewhere between a doubling and tripling of the selling price.
The buyer isn’t identified but the seller is listed on Ebay by his or her More >
Construction begins on Kaesong tech zone
Nov 15th
North Korea began construction this week on a new industrial zone in Kaesong that it hopes will attract high-tech companies.
The ground-breaking ceremony for the Kaesong Hi-Tech Industrial Park took place on Monday, less than a month after three foreign companies signed a deal with the government to work on design and construction of the park.
North Korea’s state media hasn’t said much about its plans for the zone since it announced it at an international conference on special economic zones that took place in Pyongyang in October.
But this week, state media reported on both the high-tech park and ground breaking.
“The park will have More >
Did North Korea pirate Angry Birds?
Nov 11th
One of the surprises in North Korea’s recently-launched Samjiyon (삼지연) tablet was the inclusion of Angry Birds, the globally-popular game that involves shooting animated birds to destroy structures and animated pigs.
In July, when I was reviewing the Samjiyon, I contacted game-maker Rovio to ask about its inclusion in the device. Despite several attempts to get comment, the company never replied.
Last week, The Washington Post managed to have a bit more luck.
A spokesman for the developer said via e-mail: “Angry Birds Rio has not been localized into Korean, and Rovio Entertainment has no affiliation with the version of the game being shown on the Samjiyon More >
