Internet, mobile phones eyed for Mt. Kumgang
Jul 11th
North Korea plans to allow Internet access and the use of mobile phones by visitors to the Mount Kumgang tourism zone.
Visitors are typically relieved of their mobile phones when entering North Korea and public Internet access is not available inside the country.
But the country is establishing a special tourism zone around Mount Kumgang, the scenic North Korean mountain resort that was the subject of a previous tourism agreement with Hyundai. The South Korean company halted tours to the area in July 2008 after a South Korean tourist was accidentally shot while walking along a beach in the region.
More than a More >
North Korea behind March web attacks, says McAfee
Jul 6th
North Korea or parties closely tied to the country were almost certainly behind the March cyber attacks that took down several South Korean websites, according to a report from computer security company McAfee.
The report contains a detailed analysis of the attacks and how they were carried out.
Working with the governments of both South Korea and the U.S., the company reverse engineered the computer code used in the attacks to uncover its inner workings.
Infected computers that launched the attacks were controlled by two tiers of command server, communications between the systems was encrypted in several different systems and the whole network More >
Philippines donates computers to Pyongyang school
Jul 6th
The Philippines donated a laptop PC, a desktop computer and a printer to a school in Pyongyang last week, the country’s Department of Foreign Affairs said Wednesday.
The gift was handed to Pyongyang Kaeson Middle School by Philippines Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Policy Erlinda F. Basilio. She was in in Pyongyang for scheduled talks with North Korea’s Foreign Ministry.
Established in August 1960 and located in Pyongyang’s Moranbong District, Pyongyang Kaeson Middle School was designated the Philippines-DPRK Friendship School on 23 August 2010, as part of the 10th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. The school is More >
Hana Electronics expands
Jul 5th
Hana Electronics, one of the few DPRK-foreign joint venture companies in Pyongyang, has recently expanded the facilities at its headquarters, it said on its home page.
The company is held equally by the commercial arm of North Korea’s Ministry of Culture and Phoenix Commercial Ventures, and was established in 2003. It began manufacturing DVD and Video CD players in 2004, according to the company’s website.
The company began construction work on a headquarters building south of the Taedong River in the same year. The building is located just to the south west of the Tongil Market and Hana Electronics moved into the More >
IPhone app takes users inside North Korea
Jun 30th
Fotopedia North Korea is a new iPhone and iPad app that takes users on a tour of North Korea through the photographs of Eric Lafforgue.
Lafforgue says he visited the DPRK four times between 2008 and 2010 to snap the more than 1,000 images available in the application. The photos cover the culture, sights, scenes, art, people and places of contemporary North Korea
A series of icons runs along the left-hand side of the screen providing access to context for some of the images. For example, click the “info” icon on a picture of Kim Il Sung and you’ll get a text More >
North Korea’s Chinese IP addresses
Jun 26th
Cyber attacks against South Korean organizations have been much in the headlines in recent weeks. With each attempt to crash a web server, phish for private information or infiltrate a computer in South Korea, the country’s government points its finger of blame towards North Korea, but concrete evidence is often thin on the ground.
Investigators will typically try to trace a cyber attack by discovering the IP (Internet protocol) address from which it originated. Every computer on the Internet has such an address and discovering the source address will typically help identify the organization or service provider network from which the More >
Fines for using Chinese mobile phones
Jun 26th
AsiaPress has detailed the fines North Koreans face if they get caught using Chinese mobile phones.
The use of such phones is prohibited in North Korea, but some citizens secretly use them to make uncensored calls to contacts in China, South Korea and other countries. Among them are a handful of North Korean “citizen reporters” that feed information to AsiaPress.
The agency says a fine of 1 million North Korean won is levied on anyone caught calling South Korea. The fine for a phone call to China is between 400,000 won and 600,000 won, it reported. Additionally, violators face up to a More >
Kim Jong Il on tour in China
Jun 13th
Kim Jong Il’s tour of China at the end of May saw the North Korean leader take in several high-tech factories and companies.
China Central Television (CCTV) broadcast a comprehensive report on the visit (aired after Kim had left Beijing) and provided details on some of the tour stops.
They included Yangzhou Smart Valley, the country’s Smart Grid Demonstration Center. There Kim got a demonstration of an e-book reader. He also visited Panda Group, a large manufacturer of consumer electronics products, and Beijing Digital China, an IT services company.
Kim Jong Il’s visit to Panda Electronics in Nanjing was caught on camera and More >
Is this North Korea’s netbook?
Jun 9th
The North Korean netbook highlighted in a state TV report in March appears to be made in China.
After posting an entry about the device and two other computers, both available in North Korea according to the TV report, several readers pointed out that one of the computers bears a remarkable similarity to low-cost netbooks on sale in several countries around the world.
Most often cited was the “Sylvania” netbook on sale at CVS stores in the U.S. A similar laptop is also available in several other countries and can be found on several online stores and eBay.
So, where does it come More >
Defector claims up to 3,000 hackers in North Korea
Jun 2nd
North Korea is continuing to strengthen its ranks of elite hackers and could have up to 3,000 of them, a North Korean defector said in Seoul on Wednesday. (Update: New information below)
Kim Heung-kwang, a former professor at Pyongyang Computer Technology University and member of the North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity group, told a cyber security conference that North Korea likely has around 3,000 hackers, according to local news reports.
The state previously had around 500, but raised the number last year when the cyber warfare unit saw its status raised, Yonhap reported him as saying. The unit sits under the Reconnaissance General More >
