Naenara is back
Oct 28th
North Korea’s Naenara website is back. The site went offline around early September when the dot-kp domain name space went down.
Naenara is run by Pyongyang’s Korea Computer Center and offers news, photos, shopping, tourism information and MP3 files from North Korea.
It’s running inside North Korea’s recently-activated domestic IP address space, but isn’t working perfectly. Some of the links point to dot-kp addresses, which are still not working. It’s worth keeping an eye on.
You can find it at http://175.45.176.14/en/
Classes begin at PUST
Oct 26th
Long-time North Korea watchers will be familiar with the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST).
The project has been planned and talked about for years and always seemed ready to start “next year.” Well, that time has finally come, according to a report in the New York Times.
The first classes, in technical English, began this week and will be followed by a fuller curriculum in March.
Yonhap earlier reported on some of the details of the opening. It said 17 foreign professors would be traveling to Pyongyang for the opening and that 160 students have been selected for the undergraduate and More >
South Korea now blocking new KCNA site
Oct 21st
South Korea has begun blocking domestic access to the recently launched KCNA website that operates from North Korea’s IP space. Internet users trying to access the site now get redirected to the National Police Agency’s static warning page.
The move isn’t a surprise. The writing was on the wall for the website as soon as it started getting reported in South Korean media.
I checked this afternoon and the government hasn’t blocked the entire IP address range. Right now it looks like it’s just affecting the single KCNA website.
Here’s my story: PC World
North Korean hackers probe South, say reports
Oct 21st
Two South Korean media outlets, KBS and the Chosun Ilbo, are reporting the government says it has traced “hackers” back to a server operating in North Korea.
KBS says:
A government official says North Korea has attempted to hack information on South Korea’s water supply and drainage systems.
The Chosun Ilbo provides a little more detail:
Evidence points to North Korean hackers attempting to gather information about water supply and drainage systems, pathways of toxic materials, and traffic control near the venue of the G20 Summit in Seoul, according to the Cyber Terror Response Center of the National Police Agency.
But both reports failed to More >
Pyongyang Int’l Trade Fair
Oct 19th
The 6th Pyongyang International Trade Fair kicked off on Oct. 18 and was covered by KCNA and Korea Central Television.
The event is being held at the Three Revolution Exhibition in Pyongyang and has attracted exhibitors from 17 countries. On show are “machine tools, electric and electronic equipment, vehicles, medicines, daily necessities and foodstuffs,” reported KCNA.
Among the companies in attendance are Haier, the Chinese home appliance maker, and the Deutsche Energie-Agentur (German Energy Agency).
Here are some views of the expo, courtesy of KRT:
#gallery-1 { margin: auto; } #gallery-1 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-1 img More >
KCTV moving on Thaicom-5
Oct 19th
Korean Central Television (KCTV) is moving transponders on the Thaicom-5 satellite at the end of this month.
Anyone receiving the channel via satellite will have to retune to continue watching. It’s moving from the current transponder 3G at 3504MHz H to transponder 7G at 3695MHz H.
KCTV has been on its current transponder since at least 2007, which is shortly after Thaicom-5 was launched. The new transponder has a similar footprint to the old one, so the reception area and equipment needed shouldn’t change.
The station has been broadcasting on the new channel since July 1 and will end transmission on the old More >
6th Pyongyang Autumn Int’l Trade Fair Opens
Oct 19th
Pyongyang, October 18 (KCNA) — The 6th Pyongyang Autumn International Trade Fair was opened with due ceremony at the Three-Revolution Exhibition on Monday.
Displayed there are machine tools, electric and electronic equipment, vehicles, medicines, daily necessities, foodstuff, etc produced by companies of the DPRK, China, Germany, Russia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Syria, Switzerland, Singapore, Australia, Austria, Italy, Indonesia, India, Cuba, Poland and Taipei of China.
Full Story: KCNA
North Korea Appears Capable of Jamming GPS Receivers
Oct 15th
The Voice of America has an interesting story on the jamming of GPS signals along the border region. The jamming signals are apparently from North Korea and rendered GPS systems in the region unusable.
This week, the South Korea Communications Commission informed lawmakers that between August 23 and 25, signals emanating from near the North Korean city of Kaesong interfered with South Korean GPS military and civilian receivers on land and at sea.
In theory, the jamming of GPS isn’t difficult. All that is required is a signal powerful enough to disrupt or override the relatively weak signals being received from space. The More >
Online Lecture Begins
Oct 13th
Pyongyang, October 12 (KCNA) — The Grand People’s Study House in Pyongyang has begun an online-lecture service.
Full Story: KCNA
The new face of KCNA
Oct 9th
North Korea appears to have made its first full connection to the Internet and the first site online? A new home for KCNA.
The site appeared as part of a routine scan I’ve been doing of Internet addresses issued to Star, the Thai-North Korean joint venture that I wrote about in a Computerworld story [North Korea moves quietly onto the Internet] in June 2010.
The network is connected via China Netcom and so far there’s just the KCNA Web site. As you can see from the image, it looks different to the Japan-based site run by Chongryon (Chosen Soren) and has the More >
