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Voice of Korea on Yeonpyeong shelling
The Voice of Korea, the DPRK’s international shortwave radio service, broadcast on Nov. 24 its first report in English on the shelling of Yeonpyeong island. The shelling occurred on the afternoon of Nov. 23 and the radio report comes 24 hours after a similar report was carried in English on the Korea Central News Agency…
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Distance education network reportedly launched
In mid November the North Korean state media carried stories about the inauguration of a new distance-learning network. The reports expand on a brief bulletin issued in early October about the start of an “online lecture” service. The network is based at the Grand People’s Study House in Pyongyang and connects to centers of learning…
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Koryolink Q3 2010 results
Third-quarter financial results for Koryolink have been announced by majority-owner Orascom Telecom and what a quarter it was! The network managed record growth and revenue, thanks largely to network expansion. Koryolink is North Korea’s only 3G cellular network and is operated by CHEO Technology, a joint venture in which Orascom holds 75 percent and the…
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North Korea gets a new PDA
North Korean shops have begun selling a new PDA (personal digital assistant), according to the blog of a Russian studying in the country. The Pyongyang Show and Tell blog, which also introduced us to Red Flag Linux, has some pictures of the PDA and a few technical specs. It appears to be very much in…
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Voice of Korea English B10 schedule
Voice of Korea, the DPRK’s international shortwave broadcasting service, is on the air everyday in several languages. The English language broadcasts appear to be refreshed during the day (local time) with each programming cycle beginning with the evening broadcast and then getting repeated overnight. The news output is similar to the English-language stories from KCNA,…
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Korean Central Broadcasting Station
The Korean Central Broadcasting Station (KCBS) (Korean: ??????, Chinese: ??????, Japanese: ??????) is the main domestic radio network in the DPRK. It sits under the Central Broadcasting Committee of the DPRK (called the Radio and Television Committee of the DPRK until 2009). KCBS broadcasts from 5am to 3am local time via a network of mediumwave…
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How digital technology helps get news from North Korea
Today I had the chance to meet and hear Jiro Ishimaru of AsiaPress speak at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan. He was there to talk about how the Japanese news agency manages a small network of North Koreans who report from inside the country and smuggle out images and video. The network is fascinating…
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2010 National Program Contest
The 21st National Program Contest was opened on Thursday, according to state media. The annual event is a showcase for the latest computer software developed in the DPRK and sees prizes awarded in several categories. This year they included 15 areas of research including “system and security, man-made intelligence and processing of Korean language information,”…
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Naenara is back
North Korea’s Naenara website is back. The site went offline around early September when the dot-kp domain name space went down. Naenara is run by Pyongyang’s Korea Computer Center and offers news, photos, shopping, tourism information and MP3 files from North Korea. It’s running inside North Korea’s recently-activated domestic IP address space, but isn’t working…
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Classes begin at PUST
Long-time North Korea watchers will be familiar with the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST). The project has been planned and talked about for years and always seemed ready to start “next year.” Well, that time has finally come, according to a report in the New York Times. The first classes, in technical English,…
