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Koryolink moves to plug censorship loophole
North Korea’s sole 3G mobile network operator has moved to plug a potential gap in the country’s considerable national censorship regime. The loophole could have provided North Koreans with unrestricted access to international phone calls and Internet access and relied on the prepaid SIM cards that have been available to tourists since February 2013. The…
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South Korea’s Daum launches North Korean mapping service
Daum has launched a North Korean mapping service, becoming the first South Korean portal to offer maps of the country’s northern neighbor. The maps are based on data from South Korea’s National Geographic Information Institute (NGII) and, according to local media, provide greater coverage of North Korea than Google Maps. You can check the maps out for…
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South Korea’s Supreme Court confirms acquittal of Pyongyang retweeter
South Korea’s top court has upheld the acquittal of a free-speech activist for retweeting North Korean tweets, according to several local media reports. Park Jung-geun, a Seoul-based photographer, was arrested under the country’s anti-communist National Security Law for a series of tweets posted in late 2010 and early 2011. They included retweets from Uriminzokkiri, a China-based website with…
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A new look at newspapers on KCTV
Earlier this month, Korean Central Television rolled out updated opening graphics for its 5pm and 8pm evening newscasts. A closer look at the programming reveals it wasn’t the only part of the newscast that was given a new look. The newspaper review, which is a staple of the early evening 5pm bulletin, also has a…
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China detecting illegal border crossings with satellite
China is using a high-resolution earth observation satellite to detect illegal border crossings from the DPRK, Chinese state media reported on Monday. The Gaofen-1 satellite has been used to discover “about 10” such crossings both on the China-DPRK border and in the Xinjiang Uygur region of northwest China, said China Daily reported, quoting the China National Space…
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DPRK takes Ulchi war games protest to UN
North Korea has taken its protest of the Ulchi Freedom Guardian war games to the United Nations. Ja Song Nam, the DPRK’s ambassador to the U.N. sent a letter earlier this week to the president of the Security Council protesting the exercise, which is due to begin this weekend and involves thousands of troops in…
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Ulchi Freedom Guardian means lots of computers
As a computer-based war-game, the Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise that begins this week in South Korea requires lots and lots of computers. In pictures released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Defense, some of those computers and the complexity of the set-up can be seen. The images and a video show the inside of the…
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North Korea proposes expanding work with Russian IT companies
A North Korean state IT company has approached Russia’s Information and Computer Technologies Industry Association (APKIT) proposing a greater working relationship with Russian IT companies. The country apparently wants to win business from Russian companies and the Pyongyang Kwangmyong IT Corp. held talks with APKIT in July and August, according to the APKIT. As part of those…
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First photos from Ulchi Freedom Guardian 2014
The U.S. Department of Defense has released the first photos from the 10-day Ulchi Freedom Guardian 2014 joint military exercise that has just begun in South Korea. The computer-based exercise simulates South Korean defense of a North Korean attack and, not surprisingly, have North Korea angry. The daily Rodong Sinmun wrote, “It is foolish and ridiculous…
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KCTV updates its evening news graphics
North Korea’s main evening news bulletin has a new look. Korean Central Television has updated the opening sequence of the 8pm evening news program for the first time since September 2012. The new graphics begin with a map of the world, zooming into the DPRK and then a wall of clips from the station’s news…
