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Instagram block adds speed bump to DPRK’s Internet access
It was always a bit of a paradox: in the country with some of the strictest censorship on the planet, Internet access for the lucky ones that had even less restrictions than neighboring China. In North Korea, the Internet divide between the elite and the rest of the country couldn’t have been wider: you either had everything or you…
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3G Internet service said to resume in Pyongyang
Foreigners in Pyongyang can once again access the Internet from their smartphones, according to a report. Service was suspended last Friday because of an Internet connection problem with no estimated time of restoration, according to a message sent to subscribers by carrier Koryolink. The outage and message were reported by Reuters. During the outage, websites hosted…
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Orascom tackles its North Korean cash problem
The Egyptian company that runs North Korea’s sole cellular network appears to be finally confronting one of its biggest problems in North Korea: the value of its money there. Egypt’s Orascom Telecom and Media Technology (OTMT) said on Tuesday that it is delaying the filing of its latest quarterly financial report while it attempts to…
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Maritime agency is North Korea’s newest website
North Korea’s Maritime Administration is the latest public institution to put a website on the global Internet. It’s the first new Internet website from North Korea this year and joins a small handful of sites originating from servers in Pyongyang. The site has Korean and English language versions and perhaps most interestingly, a searchable database of…
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Twitter’s Periscope live streaming reaches Pyongyang
It’s probably the first use of Periscope, Twitter’s new video live streaming tool, from Pyongyang. Coleen Baik, a designer who previously worked at Twitter, is in North Korea at the moment as part of the Women Cross DMZ movement. The group are in the headlines for their plan to cross from North Korea to South…
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North Korea is second worst for press freedom in latest CPJ survey
North Korea is the second most-censored nation on earth, according to a new ranking by the Committee to Protect Journalists. For anyone that knows North Korea or has been paying attention to press freedom studies and rankings, the news hardly comes as a surprise. The government has complete control over the news media, which is limited…
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North Korea launches online shopping site
North Korea has launched an e-commerce site on its nationwide intranet, KCNA said Wednesday. The site, which is accessible via PC and mobile telephone, is called ?? (Okryu) and includes consumer goods, medicine and food items. Users can search for goods they want to buy and also schedule delivery, said KCNA. Payments for the goods can be made with…
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CIA not talking on North Korean Internet outage
In late December, just a few days after the U.S. government accused North Korea of being behind the hack on Sony Pictures Entertainment, North Korea’s sole connection to the Internet was disrupted for nine and a half hours. At the time, there was speculation that the American government might be behind the action, especially as President…
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Smartphone imports from China said to have hit record in 2014
Imports of smartphones from China into North Korea hit a record in 2014, according to a report by Yonhap News. The South Korean news agency said North Korea bought smartphones worth US$82.8 million from China last year, according to figures from the Seoul-based Korea International Trade Association (KITA). That’s almost double the 2013 number and in…
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More Internet problems hit North Korea
North Korea’s Internet connection is experiencing problems again, leading to difficulties in connecting to North Korean websites from outside of the country, according to data from Dyn Research. Users inside North Korea are also presumably having trouble reaching sites in the rest of the world. The problems began just after 3am UTC and continued for…
