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Instagram block adds speed bump to DPRK’s Internet access
It was always a bit of a paradox: in the country with some of the strictest censorship on the planet, Internet access for the lucky ones that had even less restrictions than neighboring China. In North Korea, the Internet divide between the elite and the rest of the country couldn’t have been wider: you either had everything or you…
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3G Internet service said to resume in Pyongyang
Foreigners in Pyongyang can once again access the Internet from their smartphones, according to a report. Service was suspended last Friday because of an Internet connection problem with no estimated time of restoration, according to a message sent to subscribers by carrier Koryolink. The outage and message were reported by Reuters. During the outage, websites hosted…
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US would be OK with a North Korean satellite, but not a launch
The U.S. government says it doesn’t have a problem with North Korean satellites in space, just as long as they aren’t launched on North Korean rockets. That distinction could be important in coming months as North Korea moves towards attempting to put a second satellite into space. When North Korea last launched a satellite in December 2012, it…
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North Korean hackers said to be targeting South with MERS emails
North Korean hackers are targeting South Korean Internet users with emails that purport to be updates on the MERS (Middle East Respitory Syndrome) virus, according to broadcaster KBS. [Update: See below] A major outbreak of MERS has killed at least 14 people in the country, sickened 138 people and has close to 4,000 people in isolation…
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Orascom tackles its North Korean cash problem
The Egyptian company that runs North Korea’s sole cellular network appears to be finally confronting one of its biggest problems in North Korea: the value of its money there. Egypt’s Orascom Telecom and Media Technology (OTMT) said on Tuesday that it is delaying the filing of its latest quarterly financial report while it attempts to…
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A new satellite and an old argument
North Korea’s space agency told the Associated Press last week that it is planning to launch another satellite. The satellite will be the fifth it has attempted to put in orbit. The first three launches were unsuccessful but the fourth, in December 2012, successfully placed a satellite into space, although the satellite appears to have malfunctioned.…
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Hana electronics venture profiled
Hana Electronics, one of North Korea’s best-known and only electronics companies, is profiled in the latest edition of “Foreign Trade” magazine. The company was established in May 2003 as a joint venture between the U.K.’s Phoenix Commercial Ventures and the trading department of North Korea’s Ministry of Culture. It’s been making, or at least assembling, DVD…
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Maritime agency is North Korea’s newest website
North Korea’s Maritime Administration is the latest public institution to put a website on the global Internet. It’s the first new Internet website from North Korea this year and joins a small handful of sites originating from servers in Pyongyang. The site has Korean and English language versions and perhaps most interestingly, a searchable database of…
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Twitter’s Periscope live streaming reaches Pyongyang
It’s probably the first use of Periscope, Twitter’s new video live streaming tool, from Pyongyang. Coleen Baik, a designer who previously worked at Twitter, is in North Korea at the moment as part of the Women Cross DMZ movement. The group are in the headlines for their plan to cross from North Korea to South…
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North Korea’s lights tell story of economic redistribution
NASA’s satellite images of the Korean peninsula at night are a well known and graphic visualization of the huge gap in economic development between North and South Korea. But it turns out, there are other lessons that can be learned from nighttime pictures of North Korea. An economist at Stanford University has studied almost two decades…
