North Korean Defectors to Visit U.S. on Government-sponsored WEST program

Yonhap reports that a group of five North Korean defectors currently enrolled in South Korean colleges will visit the United States on a US government-sponsored programme reserved, until now, for South Korean students only, a government official said today.The five North Korean defectors will likely head for the United States next month, according to the official from Seoul's Unification Ministry."The US Embassy in South Korea and the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology selected the five students in April for the West programme," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.Under the student exchange program, South Korean students can visit the United States for up to 18 months -- five months of mandatory language programmes plus internships up to one year long at US companies, followed by one month reserved for free travels.Thousands of students have visited or are visiting the United States under the programme since its launch in early 2009, but no one originally from North Korea had been offered the chance until now. "We believe the programme will help North Korean defectors get wider experience and better prepare for their future employment," the ministry official said."The ministry will consider extending the programme to more North Korean defectors," he said, adding there are currently about 850 college students here who defected from North Korea.

Mobile Phone Use in North Korea Increasing and Diversifying

Media reports, including one in The Joongang Daily, indicate that mobile phone usage in North Korea is up 50 percent, year on year.   The development and use of mobile telephony is a topic that I've followed somewhat closely in this blog (see earlier posts).  There are many interesting aspects to the development.  Use of Chinese mobile services along North Korea's border with China highlights the dilemma that the North faces in trying to keep information from its people.  Continued restrictions on the use of mobile phones and other digital devices has the effect of restricting economic growth and development, while expansion of services multiplies the ways North Korean citizens can receive and share information about the outside world.  Gigaom has an interesting article, based on some recent research, about how Twitter could help unleash world peace.

According to figures released by South Korean officials, the number of mobile phone users in North Korea has increased to 450,000 and South Korea's Vice Unification Minister believes, probably correctly, that this indicates not only growth in numbers but also a diversification of users, after the early usage was largely limited to elites.  This diversification, in turn, could signal the growth of a tech-savvy generation in North Korea.  If that happens, one can only speculate about the future role of digital media in political change within North Korea.  The matter becomes especially interesting with the current rapid decrease in cost, accompanied by increase in computing and communication power of a growing array of smart phones!

North Korea's Digital Underground

The Atlantic is carrying a very interesting article on the efforts of outside news organizations to gather and disseminate information from inside North Korea.  These developments have obvious implications for the future unification of Korea.   I recommend it to you.

Orascom Comments on Investment in North Korea's Mobile Network

I commented late last month on the meeting that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il had with Naguib Sawiris, Chairman and CEO of Orascom Telecom.  Today an interesting article in The Sydney Morning Herald by Eric Ellis, gives some insight into how Sawiris views his company's investment in North Korea.  Ellis interviewed Sawiris in Egypt in early January.

Orascom, the article noted, is a classic example of a company where the sum of the parts is greater than the whole.
Like North Korea, where the value of the Koryolink JV "is either zero, or $5 billion. If there is reunification, then I will be the incumbent of North Korea, and my value will be something like [South Korean carriers] SK Telecom or Korea Telecom," Sawiris said.
"If there is a war and they unify after the war, it is still the same, depending on who wins, of course. And if they take the asset, then it is worth zero. There is no between value [in North Korea] because who will buy? No one else has the relationship that we are building there."

An Interesting Bit of Information about North Korean Telecommunications

Bits and pieces of information are about all that one receives about the state of telecommunications networks in North Korea.   However, it was very interesting to read that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has recently met with and hosted a dinner for Naguib Sawiris, Chairman and CEO of Orascom Telecom, which has been providing mobile phone service in the North in cooperation with a local company since 2008.  The official North Korean news agency, according to channelnewsasia.com reported that Kim "warmly welcomed his DPRK (North Korea) visit taking place at a time when Orascom's investment is making successful progress in different fields of the DPRK, including telecommunications." Orascom said last year that mobile phone subscriptions in North Korea had more than quadrupled in the space of a year -- to 301,199 by the end of September 2010 from 69,261 a year earlier.

North Korea's Internet Strategy

According to reports, North Korea's dot-kp top-level domain could be returning to the internet after being offline for months.  A few domain names registered under dot-kp became unavailable beginning in the third quarter of 2010 when the domain name servers responsible for them went offline.  The exact nature of the months-long outage remains unclear, but on Monday the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) pointed the domain to new servers in a first step toward bringing it back online.

Dot-kp was first assigned in 2007 to Korea Computer Center Europe, a Berlin-based offshoot of the Korea Computer Center in Pyongyang. KCC Europe operated the domain and several North Korean-related websites from servers in Germany until last year, when all went offline at about the same time. E-mail messages and phone calls to KCC Europe and Holtermann have gone unanswered. The new servers do not yet appear to be online, but IANA's records now point to North Korean Internet addresses. The servers carry the "kptc.kp" name, which is probably a reference to Korea Posts and Telecommunications Corp., the country's official telecommunications carrier.

These developments will bear watching as North Korea's overall strategy for use of the internet develops.

Korea's North-South Digital Divide: Cracks in an Orwellian Paradise

The overarching political problem in Korea today, the continuing tragedy of national division, also makes the digital divide between North and South the largest such divide existing in any country or bordering countries in the world.  I've been interested in national division as a digital divide for a long time, at least since my 1995 book, The Telecommunications Revolution in Korea was published, and have posted on it in this blog.

There are at least two major aspects to the North-South digital divide in Korea.  The first is the growing disparity in digital communications infrastructure between the two countries.  The growing infrastructure disparity has many implications, including important ones for the cost of unification.  The second aspect of the digital divide on the Korean peninsula is the vast political or democratic divide that has developed.

Andrei Lankov, an astute observer of North Korean affairs, devotes an article in The Korea Times  to an exploration of how the government in North Korea has attempted to insulate its population from outside information.  He tells an interesting part of the tragic story, and it is worth reading.

Growth of Mobile Phone Service in North Korea

According to a report in Business Week, mobile phone subscriptions in North Korea have surged by 400 percent over the twelve month period ending in September of 2010, reaching a total of 301,199 subscribers.  Of course, this increase is due in part to the low level of subscribers a year earlier (reportedly just slightly over 69,000 as of September 2009).  Cairo-based Orascom Telecom said its advanced 3G telephone service network now covered 75 percent of the population.  It reaches a total of 12 main cities, 42 small cities, and 22 highways and railways.  Orascom plans to extend coverage to over 90 percent of the population by year's end.

Analysts had predicted that mobile service would be limited to North Korea's political elite and the capital city of Pyongyang.  However, Orascom reported a steady increase in voice and SMS usage over the past three quarters.  The company has 26 direct and indirect sales outlets in eight North Korean cities.

North Korea's Software Industry

Although the digital divide between North and South Korea may be the largest in the world by many measures.  However, as with most generalizations, there are exceptions to the rule.  In the case of North Korea, one of these may be found, somewhat surprisingly, in the are of software and programming.  Bloomberg reports that programmers for North Korea's General Federation of Science and Technology developed a 2007 mobile phone bowling game based on the 1998 film "The Big Lebowski," starring Jeff Bridges, as well as "Men in Black: Alien Assault."

North Korea's growing software industry is championed by Kim Jong Il and contracting with North Korean companies is legal under United Nations sanctions unless they are linked to the arms trade.  Volker Eloesser, a founder of Pyongyang-based Nosotek, notes that the technological education of graduates from North Korean universities has become significantly better.  North Korea’s information technology push began in the 1980s as the government sought to bolster the faltering economy.

Today Nosotek advertises itself as "the first western IT venture in DPRK (North Korea).  Its web site expands upon this as follows:

• In DPRK, software engineers are selected from the mathematics elite and learn programming from the ground-up, such as assembler to C#, but also Linux kernel and Visual Basic macros. 


• Among them, Nosotek has attracted the cream of local talent as the only company in Pyongyang offering western working conditions and Internet access. 


• In addition to the accessible skill level Nosotek was set-up in DPRK because IP secrecy and minimum employee churn rate are structurally guaranteed.<
  Nosotek sells direct access to its 50+ programmers jointly managed by western and local managers. 


• Services can be invoiced through a Hong Kong or Chinese company. 


• Benefit from North Korea's opening, outsource to Nosotek.

From the government's point of view, the activities of such companies as Nosotek is no doubt appreciated since they generate foreign exchange.  However, as noted by Andrei Lankov, a North Korean expert based in Seoul, "These activities help to fund the regime, but at the same time they bring knowledge of the outside world to people who could affect change."  The dilemma facing North Korea, a subject of earlier posts (and also this one), seems to be growing and not diminishing.

North Korea using Twitter and YouTube

The New York Times carried an interesting article today on how North Korea is using Twitter and YouTube to bolster its propaganda efforts.  During the last month, a series of video clips have been posted to YouTube, brimming with vitriol and satire against leaders in South Korea or in the U.S.  During the past week, North Korea also began operating a Twitter account under the name uriminzok or "our nation."

A spokesman for the National Unification Ministry in Seoul said “It is clear that these accounts carry the same propaganda as the North’s official news media, but we have not been able to find out who operates them."
The two Koreas agreed to stop their psychological war after their first summit meeting in 2000, but the situation has changed following the sinking of a South Korean warship in the West Sea earlier this year.

Mobile Communication Reportedly Grows in North Korea

The Korea Times reported the other day that cell phones are becoming more popular in North Korea, and the article included some recent data.  The number of North Koreans with a state-approved cell phone reached nearly 185,000 as of the end of June, operator Orascom Telecom said Thursday, as more citizens have mobile access after a recent government expansion of services. Egypt’s Orascom, which operates the mobile operator Koryolink in partnership with the North Korean regime, said in a first-half report that services have expanded to several cities other than Pyongyang and that 184,531 subscribers had signed up as of June 30.

Although 60 percent of North Korea's citizens now technically have access to mobile communication, the network reportedly excludes cities near the border with South Korea because authorities fear the proximity could allow cross-border communication.  According to Orascom, foreigners, middle class people and young people are all taking advantage of the service.  However, according to Radio Free Asia, North Koreans have to pay a steep price to go mobile.  Customers must pay the equivalent of $250 for a phone, in addition to high-priced pre-paid minutes.

The Impact of Information in North Korea: More Middle Class Defectors?

An article in the Chosun Ilbo today reports on speculation that more middle class people are beginning to defect from North Korea, following the utter failure of that nation's currency reform last year.  While the article does not present numbers or hard evidence, it would be surprising if this new trend is not the case.   In addition to the currency reform, the article notes that  the spread of South Korean pop culture through videos and CDs clandestinely circulated in the North has also encouraged some middle and higher-class North Koreans to flee.

The article simply underscores the critical role of communication and information in solving the overarching political problem in Korea:  national division.   This has been the subject of numerous earlier posts.  The following are some main considerations.

• The continued growth of  telecommunications infrastructure disparity between South and North Korea--the world's largest and most poignant "digital divide."


•  The current rapid expansion of mobile broadband (a.k.a. "smart phones" --Apple, Android and others) and other digital technology is making it more difficult for the North Korean government to keep information out.  It comes in via mobile phone, MP3 players, DVD and so forth.


• North Korea ultimately faces the same dilemma as China, with its "Great Firewall," ---either accept the internet and see your economy participate in global growth, or reject it and stagnate economically.


• Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in 1948 stated that "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."    This was re-affirmed in the present century by the World Summit on the Information Society.   North Korean citizens are being denied this right.

North Korea Uses Linux to Advance Computer Technology

The DMZ which separates North and South Korea also represents the largest, deepest digital divide in the world.  To the South, The Republic of Korea has the worlds most advanced and dense digital networks, while North Korea, by comparison, has barely started to build such an infrastructure.

An article in The Korea Times yesterday provides some interesting detail about how North Korea is attempting to close the digital divide on the software side of the ICT sector.  This is interesting because South Korea, while extremely strong in ICT hardware manufacturing and exporting, has historically been relatively weak in software. Earlier posts on this blog have called attention to its heavy reliance on Microsoft, to the point of being a "Microsoft monoculture."

In a strategically interesting move, North Korea has developed its own version of the Linux open-source operating system, called "Red Star."  (Click on graphic to see full-sized version of a Red Star home page) According to researchers at South Korea's Science and Technology Policy Institute (STEPI), the software is currently being used mainly to monitor the web behavior of North Korean citizens and to control the information made available to them.  However, the fact that they are developing an operating system to control the flow of information within the country is meaningful in itself.  North Korea seems to be looking to expand the use of its computer programs into more areas.  Prior to developing Red Star in 2002, the North Korean government relied on the English version of Microsoft Windows, according to STEPI.

Mobile Phone Communication with North Korea: Current Status

An article in today's Korea Times provides some very interesting specifics about how North Korean refugees in South Korea communicate with people in North Korea by mobile phone.  Seo, Jae-pyong, the Secretary-General of a group called North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity (NKIS) said that NKIS has run a news outlet service based on mobile phone conversations with secret correspondents in North Korea since 2008.  The purpose of this effort is to provide more information about the reclusive nation.  The NKIS provided the stringers with cell phones that have an international roaming service. International phone rates between South Korea and China are applied when North Koreans call NKIS people.  Although he declined to give information about how much the stringers are paid, the NKIS representative said that their allowances are high enough to feed their families.  He also said that "When we have conversations with people, especially from the border area between North Korea and China, we hear them as clearly as our phone conversations with our colleagues in South Korea."  Mr. Seo, an engineer, escaped from North Korea in 2001.  Out of approximately 20,000 North Korean refugees that have settled in South Korea from the 1990s, about 600 are college graduates.  About 300 of these educated people have joined NKIS to let people outside North Korea know more about it.

Seo also said that North Koreans can access the latest South Korean television dramas at home without much difficulty, despite the government's strict ban on the circulation of South Korean cultural products.   Two or three weeks after airing in the South, these dramas are copied onto CDs in China, and then these CDs are sold to distributors who deal with the North Koreans.

North Korea Reportedly Cracking Down on Cell Phone Use

The Eurasia Review and other sources are reporting, not surprisingly, that the North Korean government is again attempting to crack down on the use of Chinese cell phone services.  One recent defector from North Korea reported that the North Korean authorities were jamming cell phone signals and that it was practically impossible to make a call.  He said that "you can switch phone cards and the call appears to go through, but nobody in North Korea picks up."  North Korea also appears to have made overseas purchases of expensive cell phone tracking and jamming equipment which it has installed at various locations in Shinuiju, Hyesan, and Hweryong in the border area near China, according to North Koreans living in border areas as well as those in South Korea.

Communication and Korean Reunification

Andrei Lankov's September Op-Ed piece in The New York Times, entitled "Changing North Korea," deals with a topic I addressed in Chapter 9 of my 1995 book, The Telecommunications Revolution in Korea.  That chapter is organized around the two fundamental realities of the information revolution in South Korea as they relate to the overarching problem of national division.  The first is the control of the media and the flow of information into and out of North Korea for political purposes.   The second is the growing disparity in information infrastructure between North and South.  These two factors taken together present North Korea with an enormous dilemma.  Developing modern digital networks inevitably weakens control over the information that reaches the people, while the effort to maintain strict control over information flows will inevitably inhibit the development of a modern communications infrastructure.

Under present circumstances, Lankov is undoubtedly correct in suggesting that change will have to come from the North Korean people themselves.  He notes that "Aware of their vulnerabilities, North Korean leaders have taken information control to extremes unprecedented even among Communist dictatorships."   Lankov's key suggestion is that "To crack Pyongyang's control over information and bring about pressure for change from within, truth and information should be introduced into North Korean society."   Obviously, I agree.  This is essentially what Professor Johann Galtung suggested in a 2008 lecture in Pusan (see my earlier post).

As Lankov warns in his Op-Ed piece, the United States, South Korea and others should be aware that there are no "quick fixes."  Engaging in dialogue with North Korea, encouraging exchanges, and disseminating information will only have an effect over time.   The recent growth of a digital mobile telephone network in North Korea is an encouraging sign, especially if one assumes that the development and use of modern digital networks enhances the prospects for information flow in and out of North Korea.  The evidence, if one looks at how North Koreans used Chinese mobile networks, seems to suggest that is the case. (See my September 2 post)

Mobile Communication in North Korea

There was an interesting article in the English edition of the Chosun Ilbo that noted the rapid spread of mobile phones in North Korea since the government there established a joint venture with Orascom in December of 2008.  In just eleven months of service, the number of subscribers exceeds 70,000 and it appears that number will reach 120,000 by early next year.  Although these numbers exceed the published expectations of Orascom, in learning about them one cannot help but think of the deep and growing digital divide between North and South Korea.  Other thoughts that come to mind are that the North is just now introducing 3G WCDMA service (as shown in the image in the upper left-hand corner of this post---click to see full size), while in South Korea mobile broadband is set to explode via the iPhone, Android phones and competitors.  Of course, if North Korea were to allow mobile broadband on a widespread basis, it would completely undercut several of its basic policies, by allowing the populace access to information from the outside world.  These are some of my thoughts.  While most of the world focuses its attention on the six-party talks and North Korea's nuclear program, it seems that the fundamental problems of information infrastructure and their implications deserve at least as much attention.

Anecdotal but Interesting: LG more popular than Samsung in North Korea

A short article in The Korea Times today notes that LG home appliances are more popular in North Korea than those manufactured by Samsung.  Even though North Korea is generally regarded as a "closed" society, quite a few Samsung and LG television sets enter the country through China.  To prevent the flow of South Korean electronics products, North Korea started a registration system for television sets in May of this year.

The most interesting point of this story was the reason for LG's popularity.  Reportedly, many people in the North don't know that LG is a South Korean brand, thinking instead that it is an international brand like Sony.  The story also notes that in electronics categories like computers and digital cameras, Samsung is considered better than LG.   Although this is anecdotal evidence of what is happening these days in North Korea, it is interesting and thought-provoking.

Use of Chinese Mobile Communication Services in North Korea

An article in yesterday's English edition of the Chosun Ilbo outlined a new crackdown by the North Korean government on defectors.   It contained interesting detail on how the government places defectors into three categories, with the harshest punishment dealt to those  who had entered foreign embassies or taken similar action to get to South Korea, or who had converted to Christianity.  Of particular interest to me was the detail contained in the article about those found trying to use Chinese mobile phone services.  The article notes that they are subject to the level of punishment reserved for defectors and taken to the Chongori reeducation center in North Hamgyong Province, a center which has reportedly been reorganized to deliver harsh, concentration-camp approach to punishment.

Since 2003, when mobile telephone traffic increased in the areas near the North Korea-China border, China has built many signal towers there. As a result, communications, which had been possible only in some mountains near the border, is now possible in nearly all urban areas in North Korea including Sinuiju close to the border. But North Korea is cracking down on Chinese mobile phone carriers because they could help smuggle out information and encourage defection. It has reportedly recently launched an around-the-clock watch, providing all security guards in the border areas with portable radars. Any mobile phone carrier would see a security guard vehicle arrive immediately if they engaged in a phone conversation for more than five minutes, so they are safe to use phones if they do so in the mountains, where they do not need to worry about being caught by security guards.

The Outbreak of Cyberwar in Korea?

In one of the profound ironies of the dawning information age, it appears possible that North Korea has again attacked South Korea, but this time in cyberspace, rather than across the DMZ.  The irony stems from the fact that South Korea has the world's highest levels of broadband internet usage is by far the most densely networked nation on earth, if measured in terms of fiber optic and wireless digital networks.  The attacking nation, North Korea, ranks near last in the world on measures of internet access and usage.  This is not surprising, considering its government takes great pains to insulate ordinary North Korean citizens from outside information.  Television and radio sets are wired and periodically inspected to receive only permitted channels.  Videocasettes, DVDs and mobile telephones have been prohibited and heavy penalties, up to and including death, have been exacted for their use.  Only this year, it is reported that up to 40,000 North Koreans have subscribed to the new mobile system being built by Orascom Telecom.

According to sources in both Korea and the U.S., the denial of service attacks which disrupted some government and other high-profile websites in both South Korea and the United States, may well have originated in North Korea.    In an article on "North Korea's Powerful Hacker Army," the Chosun Ilbo notes that the North Korean regime is believed to emply from 500 to 1,000 trained hackers who attack from third countries, including China.  The article suggests that the North Korean regime recruits hackers mainly from Pyongyang Automation University, also known as Mirim University, Kim Chaek University of Technology, or Pyongyang University of Computer Technology.  The first of these schools belongs to the general staff of the People's Army, has about 700 students and about 500-600 faculty and staff.  It graduates about 100 professionals every year.  The North Korean army also maintains a bureau under the General Staff to manage hackers and develop software.  Reportedly, data compiled by the U.S. Defense department shows that North Koreans are among the most frequent visitors to many of their Defense Department websites.

If the recent cyber attacks in South Korea and the U.S. indeed originated with North Korea, one can only imagine what sort of counter-attack the South and its allies are capable of, should they choose that option.