Officials from North and South Korea have come to an agreement that should allow limited Internet access inside the Kaesong Industrial Zone, the jointly-run manufacturing complex just north of the inter-Korean border. The agreement was reached during talks on Friday, according to reports quoting South Korea’s Unification Ministry. South Korean managers who work at the factories…

 

Foreigners visiting North Korea should be able to get mobile data service on their cellphones within the coming week, according to a report on Friday. Koryolink, the country’s only 3G cellphone network, plans to allow visitors to buy mobile Internet when they arrive in the country, the AP said in a report from Pyongyang. The…

 

 

A recent Google Earth update has revealed some changes at one of North Korea’s largest international communications center. Pyongyang Earth Station, situated in Pyongyang’s eastern suburb of Sadong, is believed to be responsible for the country’s civilian satellite communications links with the rest of the world. I wrote a little about its history in a previous post.…

 

Koryolink, North Korea’s only 3G network operator, added a record number of subscribers in the second quarter of 2011, but the company will have to push harder if it’s to reach a million users by the end of the year. The company ended the quarter with 666,517 subscribers, according to Orascom Telecom. Egypt’s Orascom holds…

 

Cyber attacks against South Korean organizations have been much in the headlines in recent weeks. With each attempt to crash a web server, phish for private information or infiltrate a computer in South Korea, the country’s government points its finger of blame towards North Korea, but concrete evidence is often thin on the ground. Investigators…

 

A couple of new details about Star JV, the company now responsible for North Korea’s connection to the global Internet, came to light this week. They were included in a report from the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) about the reassignment of the country’s dot-kp domain to Star JV. The report reveals the mission of…

 

Full-year results for Koryolink, North Korea’s only 3G cellular carrier, have been announced by Egypt’s Orascom Telecom. Orascom holds a 75 percent stake in Cheo Technology, which is the company that operates the Koryolink service. The remaining 25 percent stake is held by the government-run Korea Posts and Telecommunications Co. (KPTC). The results show continued…

 

North Korea has suspended a cell-phone rental service for visiting foreigners, according to Japan’s Kyodo News. The suspension began in January and could, speculates Kyodo, “reflect concern in the North over the flow of information about democracy demonstrations sweeping the Middle East.” Telecommunications systems, including cell phones and the Internet, have proved instrumental in the…