Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office is warning visitors to North Korea that they need to “carefully consider” any recorded video that they attempt to take into the country. The warning came in an update to the FCO’s travel advice for North Korea that was made on Tuesday. “Consider carefully any films or television programmes that…

 

North Korea’s Arirang smartphone has been upgraded. Recent photos of one of the phones show a new model that features an updated version of Google’s Android operating system. The phone was spotted by Aram Pan, a Singapore-based photographer who has made several trips to North Korea. He first posted them on his DPRK 360 Facebook…

 

Egyptian businessman Naguib Sawiris has taken over as CEO of the parent company of Cheo Technology, which runs North Korea’s Koryolink 3G cellular telephone network. Sawiris assumed the top job at Orascom Telecom Media and Technology (OTMT) after the former CEO, Ahmed Abou Doma, stepped down for personal reasons. He had been CEO for less than a…

 

North Korea has begun blocking access to Twitter and Facebook on domestic Internet connections offered to foreigners, according to a report last week. If correct, the move is apparently the first active blocking of Internet access by the North Korean government and comes at a time when it appears to be slowly tightening the screws on…

 

As mobiles become a must-have for the country’s elite, a cultural magazine has reportedly released some guidance on basic etiquette for the connected classes. #104634123 / gettyimages.com By Maeve Shearlaw, The Guardian. North Korea is not thought of as the most tech-savvy country in the world. The state tightly controls the flow of information into, out…

 

North Korea has banned the use of satellite Internet connections and WiFi networks by foreign embassies and international organizations unless they get government approval. The switch, which came in mid August, gives credibility to an earlier report that unencrypted wireless networks at embassies were being used by North Korean citizens to gain uncensored access to…

 

Subscriptions to Koryolink, North Korea’s only 3G mobile phone network, have just passed the 2.4 million mark, according to the latest figures from the operator. The figure represents a significant slowdown in growth in the last year over the previous year and points to the first big spurt in subscriptions being over. The carrier might have…

 

North Korea’s sole 3G mobile network operator has moved to plug a potential gap in the country’s considerable national censorship regime. The loophole could have provided North Koreans with unrestricted access to international phone calls and Internet access and relied on the prepaid SIM cards that have been available to tourists since February 2013. The…

 

Shops in cities on the Chinese side of the border are attempting to tempt North Koreans with cheap cellphones for use on their country’s mobile phone network, according to a report by Radio Free Asia. The phones are on sale for about half the price they would fetch in North Korea, but are attracting few…