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North Korea’s Red Star OS goes Mac
Poor Microsoft. It seems North Korea doesn’t like the traditional Windows-look anymore. The latest version of the country’s home-grown operating system, Red Star Linux, has been restyled and ships with a desktop that closely resembles Apple’s Mac OSX. The previous version was based on the popular KDE desktop that mimicked that of Windows 7. Red…
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Japan, US to increase intelligence sharing
Japan is sharing an increasing amount of intelligence information with the United States and emerging as a great partner in East Asia, the U.S. director of national intelligence said Thursday. Speaking during a public hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee in Washington, James Clapper said the two countries were working more closely together on intelligence…
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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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New CRS report on North Korea
The Congressional Research Service has published a new report on North Korea. The report, “U.S. Relations, Nuclear Diplomacy, and Internal Situation,” is embedded below. CRS works for the U.S. Congress and produces objective and impartial reports that are intended to provide policy makers in the House and Senate with analysis of current issues. The organization is…
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DPRK UN ambassador takes questions, gives advice
It’s not often that a North Korean official faces a skeptical press corps and takes questions. Judging by Friday’s appearance at the United Nations by DPRK Ambassador Sin Son-ho, it’s even rarer that they provide answers to those questions. Sin called a news conference at the U.N. in New York on Friday morning to announce…
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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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FBI updates FISA notice as Tsai case continues
The U.S. government’s case against two Taiwanese businessmen accused of attempting to illegally exporting machinery to North Korea continues its slow path towards a trial. Hsien Tai “Alex” Tsai, 67, and his son, Yueh Hsun “Gary” Tsai, 36, were arrested and charged in May last year. Alex Tsai was in Estonia at the time and subsequently…
