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North Korea tops 3G ranking
The late start of cellular telephony in North Korea has brought the country at least one advantage: it leads the world in 3G adoption. An impressive 99.9 percent of all subscribers in the country use 3G, placing North Korea number one in the world, telecommunication analyst TeleGeography said on Wednesday. The solid showing doesn’t really…
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Expansion at Pyongyang TV Tower
There appears to have been a significant expansion of communications capability at Pyongyang TV tower over the last decade. Analysis of satellite imagery through Google Earth shows big expansion of a neighboring building and the addition of multiple satellite dishes. (See the bottom of this post for updates.) Here’s what the building looked like on…
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Dot-KP domain names are back
North Korea’s Dot-KP domain name system returned to the Internet in the last few days. (See the bottom of this post for updates.) Offline for months, the service has resumed via servers run by Star JV, the Internet joint venture formed by the North Korean government and Thailand’s Loxley Pacific. As reported previously, dot-kp was…
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Uriminzokkiri Twitter reportedly hacked
The Twitter account of Uriminzokkiri, the China-based web site with close ties to Pyongyang, has apparently been compromised. (See the bottom of this post for updates.) Four messages posted on Saturday morning are derogatory to leader Kim Jong-Il and Kim Jong-Un, his son and heir apparent. Yonhap News translated one of the messages: “Let’s create…
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KP domains could be back online soon
North Korea’s dot-kp domain space could be back on the Internet soon. Domain name servers responsible for dot-kp have been offline for several months as have a handful of websites that used them. With no servers the entire dot-kp address space, which only amounted to a handful of sites, has been out of operation. On…
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KCNA launches video news
The Korean Central News Agency carried video news for the first time on its new home page on Jan. 1, 2011. Two video clips were posted as part of the daily news offering. The first shows scenes from around Pyongyang, including families visiting the Mansudae Grand Monument, while the second includes more shots of the…
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Joint editorial calls for expansion of CNC
North Korea called for a significant effort to modernize and build up its light industry sector this year in a joint editorial published in newspapers on Saturday. “Light industry is the major front in the general offensive of this year,” said an English-language translation of the editorial carried by KCNA. “To accelerate the development of…
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South seeks block on DPRK Internet propaganda
South Korea’s government is planning to further restrict its citizens from accessing, discussing or forwarding North Korean propaganda activity on social-networking services, such as Twitter. The plans were outlined in the Justice Ministry’s plan for 2011, which was presented on Tuesday, although lacked specifics. The South already blocks about 30 pro-North Korean websites although never…
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Rodong Sinmun on IT psychological warfare
Rodong Sinmun, the DPRK’s national daily newspaper of the Workers’ Party of Korea, attacked the U.S. on Tuesday for “waging a vicious psychological warfare on the basis of modern science and technology.” The article, an English synopsis of which was reported by KCNA, said the U.S. is using it to attack “anti-imperialist independent countries.” It’s…
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High-quality recordings of DPRK radio
Mark Fahey in Australia wrote to let me know about a project he’s working on that involves the capture of hours of North Korean radio via satellite. The broadcasts of the Korean Central Broadcasting Station domestic service via Thaicom are much higher quality than anything that’s generally available online, including my recordings from shortwave. Here’s…