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Hana Electronics expands
Hana Electronics, one of the few DPRK-foreign joint venture companies in Pyongyang, has recently expanded the facilities at its headquarters, it said on its home page. The company is held equally by the commercial arm of North Korea’s Ministry of Culture and Phoenix Commercial Ventures, and was established in 2003. It began manufacturing DVD and…
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IPhone app takes users inside North Korea
Fotopedia North Korea is a new iPhone and iPad app that takes users on a tour of North Korea through the photographs of Eric Lafforgue. Lafforgue says he visited the DPRK four times between 2008 and 2010 to snap the more than 1,000 images available in the application. The photos cover the culture, sights, scenes,…
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North Korea’s Chinese IP addresses
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…
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Fines for using Chinese mobile phones
AsiaPress has detailed the fines North Koreans face if they get caught using Chinese mobile phones. The use of such phones is prohibited in North Korea, but some citizens secretly use them to make uncensored calls to contacts in China, South Korea and other countries. Among them are a handful of North Korean “citizen reporters”…
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Kim Jong Il on tour in China
Kim Jong Il’s tour of China at the end of May saw the North Korean leader take in several high-tech factories and companies. China Central Television (CCTV) broadcast a comprehensive report on the visit (aired after Kim had left Beijing) and provided details on some of the tour stops. They included Yangzhou Smart Valley, the…
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Is this North Korea’s netbook?
The North Korean netbook highlighted in a state TV report in March appears to be made in China. After posting an entry about the device and two other computers, both available in North Korea according to the TV report, several readers pointed out that one of the computers bears a remarkable similarity to low-cost netbooks…
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Defector claims up to 3,000 hackers in North Korea
North Korea is continuing to strengthen its ranks of elite hackers and could have up to 3,000 of them, a North Korean defector said in Seoul on Wednesday. (Update: New information below) Kim Heung-kwang, a former professor at Pyongyang Computer Technology University and member of the North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity group, told a cyber security…
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DPRK’s Elderly Care Fund online
A website for North Korea’s Elderly Care Fund is now online. The site, available in Korean and English, introduces the organization and its aims. The fund was recently established, according to a KCNA report from January this year. It reported money for the organization will come from “the institution for protecting the aged and those…
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More details on Star Joint Venture
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…
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KP domain switch came after KCC Europe disappeared
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…
