-
·
Olympics notes: Will North Korean athletes get Samsung phones?
As part of its Olympics sponsorship deal, Samsung Electronics is providing a Note 8 smartphone featuring Olympic branding to every athlete at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. Samsung will supply more than 4,000 of the phones to athletes and “members of the Olympic family,” which includes officials and International Olympic Committee staff. The hope of the…
-
·
North Korea Tech wins Internet blocking case
North Korea Tech should soon be available again to readers in South Korea after I successfully won an appeal against blocking of the site by the Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCSC). The blocking began on March 24, 2016, when the KCSC ruled the site be blocked because it alledgedly violated the country’s National Security Law.…
-
·
North Korea gets a new Internet link from Russia
There’s a new Internet link into North Korea from Russia. For years, the country has relied on a single connection from China Unicom but on October 1 a new link went into operation connecting with the TransTeleCom (ТрансТелеКо́m) backbone in Russia. I wrote in depth about the link on 38 North. Since that story was…
-
·
The Pyongyang Times has a new address
North Korea’s only English-language newspaper, The Pyongyang Times (평양타임즈), has firmed up its online presence with its own URL: pyongyangtimes.com.kp . The newspaper’s articles have been available as a subsection of the Naenara (내나라) website and the new address isn’t a new website but a link directly into that Naenara section. The same site also hosts…
-
·
The North Korea website list is updated!
It’s been a while since I updated my list of North Korean websites, but it’s all change from today. The list has been revised and updated to include all the current sites online that are hosted in North Korea. It also lists several of the major North Korean-linked sites hosted overseas and sites of interest…
-
·
North Korea’s tourism agency is online
North Korea’s National Tourism Administration (국가관광총국) has launched a web site. The site, called “DPR Korea Tour,” is available at tourismdprk.gov.kp and was first noted by a Chinese travel agency on Twitter user in mid-May, but doesn’t appear to have been noticed by anyone else. Doug Madory at Renesys alerted me to the site on…
-
·
North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs opens website
North Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has opened a website, making it the highest profile government ministry yet to launch a site on the global Internet.
-
·
Court rules in favor of North Korea Tech in blocking dispute
A South Korean court has ruled in favor of North Korea Tech and against the Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCSC) over the decision to block the website in South Korea for allegedly violating the country’s National Security Law. The block began in April last year after the site was recommended for censorship by the National Intelligence Service…
-
·
ZTE hit for telecom exports to North Korea but US focus is on Iran
ZTE Corp., one of China’s largest telecom equipment manufacturers, has agreed to a record high settlement with the U.S. government over exports of controlled technology to Iran and North Korea. The deal, announced on Tuesday, totals some $1.2 billion and is the result of a coordinated prosecution by the Departments of Commerce, Justice and Treasury.…
-
·
Orascom closes its bank in Pyongyang blaming sanctions
Egypt’s Orascom Telecom has shut down Orabank, a bank it started in North Korea at the same time it launched the Koryolink mobile phone service. The closure was blamed on a new wave of international sanctions hit North Korea, including those from the United States, “becoming increasingly complex and having delved in the territory of financial sanctions.”…
