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A Look at the Sujongchon 5010 Smartwatch
With competition in the smartphone space, North Korean enterprises have started branching off into related areas such as smartwatches. One of the first to do so was Sujongchon Technology Exchange Company (수정천기술교류사), which launched the Sujongchon 5010. The smartwatch debuted around December 2024 and was on display at the Pyongyang Spring International Trade Fair in…
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North Korea’s first multi-channel IPTV service apparently launched
Manbang has launched North Korea’s first multi-channel IPTV service, offering 20 channels of live television across the country’s internal data network.
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Three things to read, from August 2025
This month’s NK TechLab reading list covers North Korea’s replacement of Chinese computers at government offices and intensifying crackdowns on information leakage.
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Russian citizen charged over exports to North Korea
The U.S. Government has indicted a Russian citizen over exports of sensitive technology to North Korea. Ilya Balakaev is chief executive officer of Radiotester LLC, a Moscow-based company that repairs radio equipment, and the recently unsealed indictment alleges he exported a handheld gas monitor to North Korea. The charge is alongside a larger scheme to export…
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Smartcard login for distance education
The distance education system run by Kim Il Sung University was the subject of a short report on Korean Central Television on Tuesday evening and we got to see a little of it in action. Distance education has been pushed in North Korea since long before Covid and many major universities offer remote online learning…
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Researchers developed dynamic traffic control system
Researchers at Kangson University of Industrial Technology have developed a system to automate control of traffic lights based on traffic volume. Their work is another sign of increasing road traffic volume in North Korea and that the country’s once famously empty roads are becoming a thing of the past. A summary of the development was…
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Unlocking North Korean songs on a karaoke machine
Karaoke is a uniting past time for North and South Korea, with noraebang commonly available throughout Pyongyang, and Video CDs long a ubiquitous commodity. It comes as little surprise then, that karaoke machines have made their way to Pyongyang. In this post, I take a look at the Tianchi v700, a Chinese karaoke machine that…
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Rakwon Trading launches an Android TV in North Korea
Rakwon Trading Co. is selling a smart TV equipped with the Android operating system, the state-run Sogwang website reported on Wednesday. The TV can be hooked up to the national intranet for web access and connects to the Manbang video on demand service, the report said. The main selling feature of the TV is dual…
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A closer look at North Korea’s Manbang IPTV box
It has been two and a half years since North Korean TV showcased a new IP streaming television service called “Manbang” (만방). Since then, it occasionally appears in state media but it’s still largely a mystery. The Manbang service is quite impressive in that it mirrors the comprehensive live and on-demand services offered by many…
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A look inside the Potonggang Electronics factory
Korean Central Television (조선중앙텔레비죤) broadcast footage over the new year holiday of the flat-panel TV assembly line of Potonggang Electronics (보통강전자제품공장). The video shows workers testing LCD TV components, putting parts together to make TV sets and testing the final TVs but at no point does it back up its main claim that the curved…
