Posts tagged Korea Computer Center
DPRK tablet PC can receive TV broadcasts
Jan 14th
North Korea’s main evening news featured a minute-long report on the tablet computers on Thursday night.
The report, which focused on the Samjiyon tablet, interviewed a man identified as the chief engineer of the tablet from the Multimedia Technology Research Institute of the Korea Computer Center.
The tablet first made an appearance in September at the Pyongyang Autumn International Trade Fair, and the television news report revealed that the tablet can receive television broadcasts.
There were several shots of the tablet showing images from Korea Central Television.
The report appeared to show several different computers, including a laptop with a detachable screen that could be used More >
KCC shows tablet PC at Pyongyang trade fair
May 20th
The Korea Computer Center, one of North Korea’s leading centers of computer studies, showed off a tablet PC running electronic library software at the recent Pyongyang International Trade Fair.
The trade fair, which happens in the spring and autumn each year, is a showcase for the latest products from North Korean companies and from international organizations looking to sell into the DPRK. This year it attracted some 270 companies including foreign participation from the Netherlands, Germany, Bulgaria, Switzerland, the UK, Austria, Italy, Finland, Poland, Australia, Malaysia, Mongolia, China and Taiwan, according to state-run KCNA.
The KCC tablet PC was detailed in an interview carried 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 >
More Tokyo raids over DPRK PC exports
Mar 1st
Police in Tokyo conducted follow-up raids this week on the office of a North Korean-linked science association as part of an investigation into illegal PC exports.
The Korean Association of Science and Technology in Japan (在日本朝鮮人科学技術協会, 재일본조선인과학기술협회) was raided on Tuesday, according to local media reports.
Police were investigating a possible link between the group and Lee Soon Gi, the 49-year old president of used PC equipment seller Popura Tec (website, right), said the Jiji news agency.
Lee was arrested earlier this month along with two others on suspicion of exporting PCs to North Korea in violation of Japan’s trade sanctions.
The science association was formed in More >
Japan indicts two over PC exports to North Korea
Feb 2nd
Japanese prosecutors have indicted two people over alleged exports of personal computers to North Korea, Kyodo news agency reported Wednesday.
The two are accused of exporting 8.2 million yen (US$108,000) worth of computers from Japan in violation of the Japanese government’s trade sanctions. Japan has imposed a complete ban on exports to North Korea since June 2009.
The computers were allegedly sent to the Korea Computer Center, the Pyongyang-based computer research center.
An earlier report by Sankei Biz said the computers were shipped in July and December of 2010 under falsified papers that claimed they were heading to Shenyang, China, and Seoul. The shipment contained about More >
North Korean laptop PCs
May 25th
The North Korean state TV evening news recently provided a glimpse at one slice of the country’s PC manufacturing industry. (Update: A similar PC has been spotted in the U.S. Read below)
The report took viewers to the factory and introduced the three computers being made, two of which are laptops and one of which is intended to be used with a television.
The report aired on March 10 and I was intending to write about it on March 11 … then the earthquake struck. I’ve finally had time to do it, and you can read my piece here on PC World: More >
KP domain switch came after KCC Europe disappeared
May 19th
North Korea’s dot-kp top-level Internet domain was reassigned after the company running it, KCC Europe, ended service and went months without replying to queries from Pyongyang, according to a report released this week.
The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, which oversees country-level domains and the IP address system, switched control of dot-kp from the Korea Computer Center to Star Joint Venture earlier this month. Star JV is the DPRK-Thai company that’s been putting Internet connectivity into Pyongyang.
The story of the domain change and what happened with KCC Europe is covered in a piece I wrote earlier today: North Korea’s Internet domain is More >
KP domains could be back online soon
Jan 4th
North Korea’s dot-kp domain space could be back on the Internet soon. Domain name servers responsible for dot-kp have been offline for several months as have a handful of websites that used them.
With no servers the entire dot-kp address space, which only amounted to a handful of sites, has been out of operation. On Monday the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), which coordinates the Internet’s top-level domains, updated the KP information to point to new servers.
Here’s more on the story, including some background about dot-kp’s mysterious disappearance:
- North Korea moves to bring KP top-level domain back online, Network World, Jan. 3, More >
North Korea gets a new PDA
Nov 5th
North Korean shops have begun selling a new PDA (personal digital assistant), according to the blog of a Russian studying in the country.
The Pyongyang Show and Tell blog, which also introduced us to Red Flag Linux, has some pictures of the PDA and a few technical specs.
It appears to be very much in the style of the PDAs or multimedia players that were popular in the early to mid part of the last decade. There’s no branding on the case that’s visible from the images.
I contacted the student, who doesn’t want to be identified, and asked him a little bit More >
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/
