Air traffic warned of rocket drop zone
Mar 22nd
Aircraft flying between The Philippines and Japan are being cautioned that three air routes cross the area in which part of North Korea’s Unha-3 rocket is expected to fall to land.
The area is identical to the “second stage falling area” that was notified to international maritime authorities earlier this week. The Unha-3 rocket is a two-stage design and one part is expected to drop into the sea to the west of South Korea with the other falling near The Philippines.
The air routes affected are A582, which goes from Jomalig island off the eastern coast of Mindanao to Japan’s Kyushu island via More >
Exclusive: North Korea’s expected rocket trajectory
Mar 21st
North Korea’s Unha-3 rocket, scheduled for launch next month, will drop to earth in two stages off the western coast of South Korea and to the east of Luzon Island in the Philippines, according to documents submitted by the country to the International Maritime Organization.
The documents, obtained by NorthKoreaTech.org, were sent to the IMO’s London headquarters from the DPRK’s embassy in the U.K. They carried the name of “Ko Nung Do,” who is identified as director general of the DPRK’s Maritime Administration.
Some of the information restates what has already been disclosed by the country: that the launch would take place More >
Pyongyang News website offers archived TV news
Mar 21st
A website in Japan has begun offering an archive of several days worth of North Korean TV news broadcasts.
[Updated: see below]
The Pyongyang News website appears to be affiliated with a handful of sites operated by the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (sometimes known as ‘Chosen Soren’ or ‘Chongryon’) (在日本朝鮮人總聯合會, 재일본 조선인 총련합회).
At time of writing, news bulletins going back to March 2nd are available. That’s longer than the 10 day archive offered by Elufa.net, another Tokyo-based website affiliated with the same group. The programs are received via a feed of North Korean television on the Thaicom satellite.
The new site has bulletins More >
Exclusive: DPRK satellite to send data, video
Mar 20th
The International Telecommunication Union has received notification from North Korea of its planned satellite launch, the Geneva-based organization confirmed on Monday.
The DPRK’s launch notification says the “Kwangmyongsong-3″ satellite is scheduled for launch around April 12 to 16th, a spokesman for the U.N. organization said via e-mail.
It states the satellite is being launched in “pursuant of the State plan for space development,” which mirrors last week’s official announcement of the launch.
The satellite will broadcast remote data in the UHF band and video in the X-band, the ITU quoted the DPRK’s notification as saying.
Stamps of previous satellite launches
Mar 19th
North Korea has twice attempted to launch satellites into space in the past: once in 1998 and once in 2009. The success of the launches is an issue of debate — monitors, both governmental and amateur, never managed to detect signals from the 2009 satellite — but they were immortalized on two North Korean postage stamps.
The first is from 1998 and illustrates the August 31st launch of Kwangmyongsong-1.
The launch came during the country’s “arduous march,” a period of extreme famine in the country that is estimated to have killed between 900,000 and 3.5 million people. At the end of the year, North More >
Foreigners, media invited to satellite launch
Mar 19th
North Korea says it will invite international observers and foreign media to witness the upcoming launch of its Kwangmyongsong 3 satellite, state-run media said on Saturday.
The launch, which is due to take place between April 12 and 15, is expected to become one of the high points of the country’s celebration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung on April 15. The invitation of foreign observers to see the launch increases the pressure on North Korea to ensure the launch goes perfectly — a launch malfunction would be embarrassing for the country, especially if the foreign media is allowed More >
AP/KCNA photo exhibit opens in New York
Mar 17th
A joint photo exhibition being staged by The Associated Press and the Korean Central News Agency opened at New York’s The 8th Floor gallery this week.
The exhibition is one by-product of the AP’s opening of a news bureau in Pyongyang earlier this year and features 79 photographs, including shots from AP photographers, KCNA staffers and material from the KCNA archive.
The pictures are “designed to show what life is like in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” the AP said in a news release.
They include the picture on the right, which is captioned: “A young North Korean dancer leaps by as girls put More >
North Korea to launch satellite in April
Mar 16th
North Korea will launch a satellite in mid-April to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of national founder Kim Il Sung, according to a Friday report on the state-run Korea Central News Agency.
The satellite will be called Kwangmyongsong-3 and will be launched between April 12 and April 16, the report said quoting a statement from the Korean Committee for Space Technology. A Unha-3 launched will be used.
Technicians plan to launch the satellite into a polar orbit, which means it won’t sit in one place in the sky like a TV satellite but will orbit the globe passing over multiple points. Exact details of More >
North Korea serves up two new websites
Mar 15th
Two new North Korean-related websites have recently launched and both are associated with food.
The first, from Korea Pyongyang Haedanghwa Foodstuff, appears as a sub-site on the Naenara portal operated by Korea Computer Center (pictured, right). The site is available in Korean, Chinese and English and promotes the company’s
South Korea’s Yonhap News reports the website is “what could be the cash-strapped nation’s latest attempt to diversify its marketing activities to earn hard currency,” but there’s not much to back up that claim. While the site does appear to be the company’s first step onto the Internet, it’s not heavy with sales pitches and there’s More >
Japan ties exported PCs to Internet attacks
Mar 14th
Japanese police suspect a consignment of 1,843 used computers and monitors allegedly exported to North Korea could have been used in a 2009 week-long attack on a handful of South Korean and U.S. websites.
The computers, allegedly exported in violation of Japanese sanctions, were shipped to the Pyongyang Informatics Center (PIC), a unit of the state-run Korea Computer Center (KCC), on June 18, 2009, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported quoting “investigation sources.”
Less than a month later on the July 4 weekend, a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack targeted 27 South Korean and U.S. websites.
DDOS attacks work by harnessing the power and bandwidth More >
