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US sees no special help to DPRK from Chinese military
The Chinese military isn’t providing any special help to the Korea People’s Army (KPA) on a regular basis, according to the U.S. Department of Defense’s deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia. David Helvey was speaking to the press in Washington on Monday afternoon after the department published its annual report on military and security developments involving…
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Father, son indicted on exports of banned machinery to DPRK
U.S. prosecutors have indicted a Taiwanese father and son on charges related to the supply of machinery to North Korea that could be used in the production of weapons of mass destruction. Hsien Tai “Alex” Tsai, 67, and his son, Yueh Hsun “Gary” Tsai, 36, were charged during a Monday afternoon hearing at federal court…
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Hacker publishes North Korean website hit list
An unidentified Internet user posting under the name of the Anonymous hacking collective has published a “hit list” of North Korean websites. The list is said to be related to a coordinated attack that hackers appear to be planning for June 25. The action is part of “OpNorthKorea,” which previously took sites in North Korea…
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Spring International Trade Fair set for next week
Pyongyang’s Spring International Trade Fair is due to open next week, the state-run Korea Central News Agency reported Monday. This year’s event will run from May 13 to 16 and will bring together companies from Germany, Malaysia, Mongolia, Switzerland, Singapore, Australia, Italy, Indonesia, China, Poland and Taiwan, KCNA said. Vendors will show machines, electric and electronic products,…
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No surprises in DoD’s DPRK report to Congress
This week the U.S. Department of Defense published its annual report to Congress on military and security developments Involving the DPRK. The 20-page unclassified document provides a good if brief overview of the current state of North Korean armed forces. For tech-watchers, it doesn’t include any surprises. The country’s cyber warfare capabilities were addresses in…
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DPRK moves up a point, but still worst for press freedom
DVDs being smuggled into the DPRK have gained the country a point in an annual ranking of press freedom. [Updated, see below] The ranking, by Washington, D.C., -based Freedom House was published on Wednesday and this year gave North Korea a score of 96. That still leaves it at the absolute bottom of the survey,…
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DPRK inventors receive WIPO awards
Last week, the Korean Central News Agency reported that seven local inventors received awards from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The awards were handed out last Wednesday and were part of events to mark world intellectual property day on April 26. I was intrigued at how WIPO had found these inventors, so I contacted…
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The importance of data security
When South Korean workers began leaving the Kaesong Industrial Zone a couple of weeks ago, they returned across the border in cars and trucks laden with as much finished merchandise as possible. Plastic-wrapped packages and boxes didn’t just fill the interior of cars but were stacked high on the roof, sometimes even covering the car’s…
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Koryolink nears 2 million subscribers
Koryolink, North Korea’s sole 3G cellular service provider, is close to hitting the 2 million subscriber mark. The news was disclosed this week by the Koryolink CEO Ezz Heikal in Pyongyang and later confirmed by the company’s head office in Cairo. It means that Koryolink will have roughly doubled its subscriber base in the last 15 months.…
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Choson Sinbo reacts to user database hack
Choson Sinbo, the newspaper of the DPRK-affiliated Korean community in Japan, has apologized to its readers after its user database was leaked over the weekend by hackers. The Tokyo-based newspaper ran an apology on its website in both Korean and Japanese in which it acknowledged the Saturday attack resulted in the disclosure of private information about registered users…
