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North Korea YouTube List updated
It’s been almost a year since I published the second edition of The North Korea YouTube List, a survey of YouTube channels that carry material related to North Korea. The latest version includes several new channels and changes throughout. Perhaps the biggest change is that the DPRK Music Channel, previously ranked as the most popular…
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Internet access, computers and high-tech life at PUST
Will Scott, a computer scientist from Washington state, just returned from several months as a guest lecturer at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST). In an interview with North Korea Tech and in posts on Reddit, Scott spoke about what it’s like to be at PUST. This is part two of a three-part…
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Experiences of a PUST teacher
Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) is one of the more ambitious international ventures in North Korea of the last few years. Almost ten years in planning, PUST is the country’s first privately-run university and backed with funds from evangelical Christian organizations in the U.S. and overseas. It currently has several hundred students and…
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Unification Ministry to launch North Korean portal on Monday
South Korea’s Ministry of Unification will launch on Monday a new web portal focused on North Korea. The North Korea Information Portal, or NK Info for short, is intended to provide South Koreans with up to date information on the DPRK, the Unification Ministry said. Here are some screenshots of what you can expect from…
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‘No discernible improvement’ in DPRK human rights in 2013
Human Rights Watch says it has seen “no discernible improvement” in the human rights situation in North Korea since Kim Jong Un took power in late 2011. The verdict, which likely comes as no surprise to anyone that watches the country, was included in the New York-based group’s annual “World Report” on human rights in…
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Is this North Koreas first Bitcoin transaction?
Bitcoin has arrived in North Korea … sort of. A tourist on a trip to Pyongyang used the Koryolink mobile Internet service to make what is supposedly the first transaction in the country using the virtual currency. But it wasn’t a payment to anyone in the DPRK. The US$100 payment (just under 104 milliBitcoins)…
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Wikipedia enters North Korea … via balloon
The Korean-language version of Wikipedia, pro-democracy literature and entertainment were among the contents on USB sticks recently sent via balloon into North Korea. Twenty balloons, each carrying several large bags of propaganda materials, were launched on Wednesday from Paju, close to the inter-Korean border, according to Human Rights Foundation, a New York-based NGO that focuses on…
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IJuche app banned in South Korea
A recently-launched iPhone app that delivers articles from the Korean Central News Agency to iPhones and iPads has been banned in South Korea. The app, iJuche, was developed and published in late 2013 and was highlighted on NorthKoreaTech earlier this week. That publicity was apparently enough to get it blocked. “I just got a call…
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BBC decides against service for North Korea
The BBC World Service has decided not to launch a service aimed at North Korea, concluding any programming aimed at the country would face an uncertain audience and not be cost-effective. The decision was relayed in a letter from British Foreign Secretary William Hague to the U.K. Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee. The BBC World Service is…
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App lets you keep up with KCNA on iPhone, iPad
If you use an Apple iPhone or iPad, there’s a new app that lets you stay current with news from the Korean Central News Agency. IJuche is the product of work by Peter Curtis, who says he became fascinated with the DPRK after reading Andrew Holloway’s “A Year in Pyongyang.” “When I decided that I…
