Martyn Williams
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Homepage: http://www.northkoreatech.org
Posts by Martyn Williams
GPS jamming ends, says report
May 16th
The apparent intentional jamming of Global Positioning System (GPS) signals that has disrupted service near the Korean border has stopped, Yonhap news reported on Tuesday.
The jamming has caused inconvenience to hundreds of commercial aviation flights and international shipping since it began on April 28. The source of the interference isn’t known but South Korean media have quoted government sources as saying it’s been coming from the North Korean city of Kaesong.
The signals ended on Monday, said Yonhap.
The end of the interference came on the same day that South Korean President Lee Myung Bak and Chinese premier Hu Jintao met in More >
North Koreans gaining more access to foreign media, says report
May 13th
Cracks in the information wall that has long surrounded North Korea are increasingly allowing citizens in the country more exposure to foreign media, according to a report published on Thursday.
The report, produced by Intermedia for the U.S. Department of State, was based on surveys of several hundred defectors, refugees and travelers, and found “substantial numbers” are able to access outside media.
It’s based on a relatively small sample of a few hundred people made up of those who have already made it outside the country, either by defecting or crossing the Chinese border for trade. Therefore, the results can’t simply be More >
Many more satellite launches coming, says DPRK
May 4th
North Korea’s failed satellite launch may have faded from the pages of the world’s media, but the country’s state-run news agency hasn’t forgotten the international community’s objections to the plan.
A commentary published on Thursday by Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) rehashes North Korea’s argument that the launch was part of a peaceful, civilian space program and should be seen as another chapter in the history of global space exploration.
Arguing that thousands of objects have been sent into space since the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957, the editorial asserts that a nation’s technological prowess is partly defined by its space technology.
The More >
DPRK jamming GPS signals, says Seoul
May 3rd
Interference is causing problems with Global Positioning System (GPS) signals around Seoul and the South Korean government says North Korea is to blame.
GPS signals became unreliable on April 30 and more than 250 commercial aircraft has to rely on other navigation methods, according to several local media reports.
A spokesman for the Korea Communications Commission told The New York Times. “We believe that the jamming signals originated in North Korea,” but a different spokesman told AFP that North Korea had been confirmed as the source.
“We’ve confirmed the GPS jamming signals have been stemming from the North,” AFP quoted KCC deputy director Lee Kyung-Woo, More >
Voice of Korea mid-2012 schedule
Apr 26th
North Korea’s international shortwave broadcaster, the Voice of Korea, will use the following schedule for English language broadcasts from April 30, 2012.
The radio station broadcasts two programs a day, each around 57 minutes long. Program one is carried on broadcasts aimed at South East Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, South Africa and Central and South America. Program two is carried on broadcasts for Europe, North America and North East Asia.
Each of these programs includes the same core features: the news, editorials and the reminiscences of Kim Il Sung. Music and other features sometimes differ between the two broadcasts.
They More >
More anti-Lee vitriol, and a song
Apr 25th
The North Korean media spent a second day on Tuesday heaping harsh criticism on South Korean president Lee Myung Bak and issuing threats against him and others.
On Monday, the country’s official media carried a statement attributed to the “Special Operation Action Team of the Supreme Command of the Korean People’s Army” that threatened to “burn down” Lee Myung Bak and the country’s conservative media “within three to four minutes, or shorter than that, by unprecedented means.”
Official news agency KCNA carried a number of cartoons depicting Lee as a rat (the theme repeatedly used in the current propaganda action) being captured and on More >
DPRK radio transmitters a national secret
Apr 25th
When North Korea launched a modernization of its broadcasting network in 2011, the Chinese company chosen to supply new TV and radio transmitters to the country faced a problem.
The location of broadcast towers in North Korea is so much of a state secret that engineers from the company weren’t permitted to travel to the DPRK to help install the transmitters, the company, Beijing BBEF Science and Technology, said on its website.
Instead, eight North Korean engineers spent a month in China being trained on how to install and operate the devices, which included a medium-power TV transmitter, several shortwave radio transmitters and a powerful More >
DPRK issues new threat against Lee, SK media
Apr 23rd
North Korea came out swinging on Monday against the South Korean government, promising to “burn down” Lee Myung Bak and the country’s conservative media “within three to four minutes, or shorter than that, by unprecedented means.”
The threats, which are stronger than the normal anti-Lee rhetoric that comes from the country’s media each day, followed a speech made by the South Korea president on Friday and were broadcast in a special news TV bulletin. It was also carried by state radio.
Here’s a clip from the English-language program of the Voice of Korea.
http://www.northkoreatech.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/120423-vok.mp3The Special Operation Action Team of the Supreme Command of the Korean More >
DPRK promises more satellite launches
Apr 19th
North Korea says it will continue to conduct satellite launches despite the protests of other countries.
The pledge was made in a statement by the country’s foreign ministry, which was carried by the Korea Central News Agency and Voice of Korea radio (below) and doesn’t come as a surprise.
The statement reiterates North Korea’s assertion that its launches are for “peaceful purposes” and promises that future launches will include a geostationary satellite.
A geostationary satellite maintains an orbit above the equator so that it doesn’t appear to change position when viewed from Earth. Communications satellites, like those used to beam TV to the home, More >
English transcript of Kim Jong Un’s speech
Apr 18th
Here’s an English translation of the speech delivered by Kim Jong Un on April 15th, 2012, at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang:
[Update: I should have originally mentioned, this is not an official translation. The DPRK has, to my knowledge, published no transcript of the speech.]
Heroic officers of the army, the navy, the air force and the strategic rocket unit of the Korean People’s Army (KPA), and officers of the Korean People’s Internal Security Forces; members of the Worker-Peasant Red Guards and the Young Red Guards; working people of the entire country and citizens of Pyongyang; the people in the South More >
