KCNA significantly increasing output
Mar 4th
The Korean Central News Agency has significantly increased its online output in the last few months as it continues to expand its new website.
The website, available at kcna.kp (except in South Korea where it’s blocked), first appeared in October 2010 and is KCNA’s first official home on the web. KCNA news was previously available via Korea News Service in Tokyo, but the new site appears to be run directly from Pyongyang.
When it launched, it carried KCNA’s English and Spanish language output and some photos. A refresh of the site in December added Korean, but this simply brought it level with the More >
KCNA reporting Chinese Internet filtering
Feb 22nd
North Korea’s official news agency, KCNA, has reported three times in the past week on China’s filtering of the Internet.
The reports come at an interesting time for free-speech online. Internet-based social networks and communications systems are being hailed as instrumental in protests that have toppled two Middle Eastern leaders and the U.S. has confirmed a commitment to advancing Internet freedom with diplomatic pressure and grants of up to US$30 million.
Internet access is available in the DPRK, but is believed to be severely restricted to all but the most-trusted members of the government and related organs.
KCNA’s first report came on Feb. 14, More >
Report: Cell phone rentals to visitors suspended
Feb 21st
North Korea has suspended a cell-phone rental service for visiting foreigners, according to Japan’s Kyodo News.
The suspension began in January and could, speculates Kyodo, “reflect concern in the North over the flow of information about democracy demonstrations sweeping the Middle East.”
Telecommunications systems, including cell phones and the Internet, have proved instrumental in the growing civil unrest that has already engulfed several Middle Eastern states. In Egypt the government shut off both networks at the height of the unrest.
North Koreans don’t have access to the Internet, but at least 300,000 of them carry cell phones, according to data from the operator. More >
Rodong Sinmun launches website
Feb 17th
Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Worker’s Party of Korea and one of the most important propaganda tools of the DPRK government, has launched a website.
The site was first reported on Thursday although appears to have been officially launched a day earlier on Feb. 16, which was Kim Jong Il’s 69th birthday. DNS (domain name system) records for the site, at www.rodong.rep.kp, which are required for public access to the server, first appeared on Feb. 16.
The website appears to contain the full text of each day’s newspaper and stories back to Jan. 1, 2011. Each More >
Website appears for LRIT maritime system
Feb 16th
North Korea appears to have taken the first steps towards putting a data center online for the maritime Long Range Identification and Tracking (LRIT) system.
The LRIT system was created by the International Maritime Organization in May 2006 and requires passenger and cargo ships automatically report their identity and location at least four times a day. LRIT aids in the global identification and tracking of ships and is part of the shipping industry’s answer to piracy.
In the last few days a website has appeared within North Korea’s IP address space that carriers the single English-language message: “Welcome to LRIT National Data Center More >
Homefront: Battling North Korean invasion
Feb 12th
The year is 2027 and the Greater Korean Federation, a North Korea-controlled bloc of Asian nations, has been occupying San Francisco for two years. This is the fictional — and many would say unlikely — setting for Homefront, a video game that hits U.S. shelves on March 15.
The game pits the player, a member of the U.S. resistance, against Korean Federation forces in the battle to liberate San Francisco. It’s developed by Kaos Studios, and was written by John Milius, who is best known for Apocalypse Now and Red Dawn.
“Homefront is set ten years after the economic collapse of the More >
Pyongyang Earth Station
Feb 7th
In Pyongyang’s eastern suburb of Sadong lies one of North Korea’s gateways with the world. The satellite earth station, pictured below, links the country with international communications satellites.
Construction of the earth station began in early 1984, a few months before North Korea joined the Soviet-led Intersputnik group.
Back then, Intersputnik served as the satellite telecommunications coordinating body for socialist countries, and linked the Soviet Union and other Soviet-bloc states.
The DPRK was admitted as Intersputnik’s 14th member during a meeting in Karl Marx Stadt, East Germany (today called Chemnitz), in September 1984.
The earth station was inaugurated in October 1985, according to a More >
3G users to hit 1 million this year, says report
Feb 4th
North Korea is expecting the number of 3G users in the country will reach 1 million this year, according to a Chinese television report.
The prediction was made by a staffer of Chesin Commercial Corp., the government-linked company that runs North Korea’s international e-mail service, in an interview with Chinese Central Television (CCTV).
“It is expected that mobile phone users will reach one million in 2011,” the man, identified as Lee Churl Suh, told the Chinese state-run broadcaster in Pyongyang.
It was included in a report that focused on the popularity of cell phones in North Korea. The report was distributed to broadcasters More >
CNC big in Kim Jong Il’s January visits
Feb 1st
Alongside a call to reduced tensions with its southern neighbor, North Korea’s New Year joint editorial called for a significant effort to modernize and build up its light-industry sector this year. Central to this task will be the adoption of computer-controlled machinery, so-called CNC (computer numeric control) equipment.
So it comes as no surprise that factories and CNC technology featured big Kim Jong Il’s on-site guidance tours in January. His first visit of the year was to the Nampho Glass Bottle Factory, reported KCNA.
“He praised the workers of the factory and builders and their helpers for their feats performed in building such More >
Kim Jong Il calls for computer network expansion
Jan 31st
Kim Jong Il has called for the expansion of a domestic computer network, according to domestic media reports. His comments were made earlier this month, when he visited the recently-built North Hwanghae Provincial People′s Study House, said KCNA and state radio.
The study house was opened in September 2010 and covers 4,500 square meters, according to a BBC Monitoring transcript of a state radio bulletin broadcast on Jan. 21.
In has a capacity of hundreds of thousands of books, databases, seats for 500 and is connected to the remote lecture service that was started by the Grand People’s Study House in Pyongyang More >
