Posts tagged Korea Computer Center
Kwangmyong has been upgraded, says report
Nov 12th
Kwangmyong information service (Photo: Naenara)
Kwangmyong, North Korea’s online information service, has been upgraded.
The network serves scientific and technological information and has been expanded with a new search function that includes a translation function, according to a recent article on Naenara, the website of Pyongyang’s Korea Computer Center.
The article doesn’t go into great date on what exactly is new, but reports:
“Pak Sun Hyok and other programmers of the Information Technology Department set a goal of developing a function capable of referring to databases in different languages at one click with one Korean question through the automatic question-and-translate function and the immediate translating function More >
Another look at the Spring Trade Fair
Jun 23rd
When he wasn’t taking stunning panorama photographs around Pyongyang, Singapore-based photographer Aram Pan had time to visit this year’s Pyongyang Spring International Trade Fair (평양봄철국제상품전람회).
The fair was twice as big this year as it had been in 2013 according to state media, and it’s easy to see why when you watch a 3-minute video shot by Pan.
The place is bustling with people browsing and buying all manner of products.
As Pan notes in the opening of the video, all transactions that take place at the event are settled in Chinese Yuan, Euros or U.S. Dollars. In fact, a booth worker can be seen handling U.S. More >
North Korea’s Red Star OS goes Mac
Jan 31st
Poor Microsoft. It seems North Korea doesn’t like the traditional Windows-look anymore.
The latest version of the country’s home-grown operating system, Red Star Linux, has been restyled and ships with a desktop that closely resembles Apple’s Mac OSX. The previous version was based on the popular KDE desktop that mimicked that of Windows 7.
Red Star Linux was developed by the Korea Computer Center (KCC), a major center of software programming in Pyongyang, and is based on Linux, the open-source operating system originally developed by Linus Torvalds.
Open-source software is offered to the world under a license that allows anyone to adapt and More >
Did North Korea pirate Angry Birds?
Nov 11th
One of the surprises in North Korea’s recently-launched Samjiyon (삼지연) tablet was the inclusion of Angry Birds, the globally-popular game that involves shooting animated birds to destroy structures and animated pigs.
In July, when I was reviewing the Samjiyon, I contacted game-maker Rovio to ask about its inclusion in the device. Despite several attempts to get comment, the company never replied.
Last week, The Washington Post managed to have a bit more luck.
A spokesman for the developer said via e-mail: “Angry Birds Rio has not been localized into Korean, and Rovio Entertainment has no affiliation with the version of the game being shown on the Samjiyon More >
Autumn trade fair begins in Pyongyang
Sep 24th
The second of Pyongyang’s two annual international trade fairs opened on Monday.
The Pyongyang Autumn International Trade Fair is scheduled to run until Thursday and has attracted companies from Germany, Russia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Singapore, Italy, China, Cuba, Turkey and Taiwan, according to the Korean Central News Agency.
In previous years, the fair has been the launching point for new tablet computers. Nothing was mentioned about new computers in Monday’s local press coverage, although Monday’s main evening news bulletin on Korea Central Television (below) did show again the Samjiyon tablet computer
You can find a full review of the Samjiyon tablet here, and details of its More >
Exclusive: North Korea’s Samjiyon tablet — Made in China?
Aug 4th
One of the most interesting questions surrounding North Korea’s Samjiyon tablet is its source. State media reports not withstanding, the tablet is almost certainly not made in North Korea — the country just doesn’t have the electronics manufacturing capability to design products like tablet computers from the components up.
And anyway, why bother? Companies in Taiwan and China offer many finished tablet designs that are widely used, even by well-known western brand names, so why go through the work and expense of designing something from scratch?
North Korea’s IT expertise is in software and that’s where the Samjiyon is very North Korean. There More >
Review: Samjiyon tablet
Aug 1st
North Korea, like the rest of the world, is getting hooked on tablet computers. In the last year, state media has highlighted three different tablet computers that are now, according to the reports, available in the country.
The latest of these, the Samjiyon (삼지연), is also on sale to foreigners and one of the tablets was recently purchased by a tech-savvy tourist. The tourist, Michael, doesn’t want to use his surname, but I’ve spoken extensively with him via e-mail, phone and Skype video chat about the tablet and how it performs.
The Samjiyon first appeared to the world at the 8th Pyongyang Autumn International Trade More >
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 >
