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North Korea’s Koryolink: Built for Surveillance and Control
Internal meeting minutes reveal that state surveillance was the North Korean government’s top priority when designing the Koryolink mobile network in 2008.
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ZTE hit for telecom exports to North Korea but US focus is on Iran
ZTE Corp., one of China’s largest telecom equipment manufacturers, has agreed to a record high settlement with the U.S. government over exports of controlled technology to Iran and North Korea. The deal, announced on Tuesday, totals some $1.2 billion and is the result of a coordinated prosecution by the Departments of Commerce, Justice and Treasury.…
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Koryolink faces big problems with cash, competition
Orascom Telecom, the majority owner of North Korean cellular network Koryolink, is facing major problems getting its money out of North Korea and now has new competition from its partner, the government, in the form of a rival cellular network. The new network was recently launched in competition with Koryolink and the two parties are currently discussing merging the…
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Internet coming to Kaesong Industrial Zone
Officials from North and South Korea have come to an agreement that should allow limited Internet access inside the Kaesong Industrial Zone, the jointly-run manufacturing complex just north of the inter-Korean border. The agreement was reached during talks on Friday, according to reports quoting South Korea’s Unification Ministry. South Korean managers who work at the factories…
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Koryolink to give foreigners mobile data
Foreigners visiting North Korea should be able to get mobile data service on their cellphones within the coming week, according to a report on Friday. Koryolink, the country’s only 3G cellphone network, plans to allow visitors to buy mobile Internet when they arrive in the country, the AP said in a report from Pyongyang. The…
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DPRK radio transmitters a national secret
When North Korea launched a modernization of its broadcasting network in 2011, the Chinese company chosen to supply new TV and radio transmitters to the country faced a problem. The location of broadcast towers in North Korea is so much of a state secret that engineers from the company weren’t permitted to travel to the DPRK…
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Changes at Pyongyang Earth Station
A recent Google Earth update has revealed some changes at one of North Korea’s largest international communications center. Pyongyang Earth Station, situated in Pyongyang’s eastern suburb of Sadong, is believed to be responsible for the country’s civilian satellite communications links with the rest of the world. I wrote a little about its history in a previous post.…
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Koryolink sees another record quarter
Koryolink, North Korea’s only 3G network operator, added a record number of subscribers in the second quarter of 2011, but the company will have to push harder if it’s to reach a million users by the end of the year. The company ended the quarter with 666,517 subscribers, according to Orascom Telecom. Egypt’s Orascom holds…
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North Korea’s Chinese IP addresses
Cyber attacks against South Korean organizations have been much in the headlines in recent weeks. With each attempt to crash a web server, phish for private information or infiltrate a computer in South Korea, the country’s government points its finger of blame towards North Korea, but concrete evidence is often thin on the ground. Investigators…
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More details on Star Joint Venture
A couple of new details about Star JV, the company now responsible for North Korea’s connection to the global Internet, came to light this week. They were included in a report from the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) about the reassignment of the country’s dot-kp domain to Star JV. The report reveals the mission of…
