On the development of IT in modern North Korea
A few days ago, the guys from The Pirate Bay issued a statement about moving their servers to a rather unexpected place - Server North Korea. After some time, it turned out that we were talking about a common joke, but the vigorous discussion of the state of the IT infrastructure in today's North Korea was unstoppable . Due to the fact that I happened to be in this country, we have an undeservedly having the reputation of "the most closed", I could not help but object to the authors of comments in the style of "yes they have a dozen computers for the whole country." The answer to my remarks was requests to share my own observations on the level of technical development of Korean institutions - which, in fact, I will do in this post.
To begin with, I was in Korea from personal interest - business and business trips have nothing to do with it. You should not expect to see here a dill in the style of the famous review of Tyoma Lebedev, exactly like thanksgiving a la "The Way Ilyich newspaper". I will confine myself to a few common neutral photos and go straight to the topic of the post:
')
There is an opinion that in North Korea there is no Internet at all, the population doesn’t have any components at all, and in government institutions there are only computer dinosaurs that have served their time. This is not at all the case, although when compared with Japan and South Korea, the contrast catches the eye.
Cellular communication accessible to the local population appeared in the DPRK just a few years ago. 3G communication services are provided by Koryolink , operated by Egyptian concern Orascom. The Internet through it is still unavailable - only calls and regular SMS. Foreigners are also forced to use its services - there is no roaming in the country yet. But they, unlike local, 3G Internet is already available .
By the way, until recently, foreigners were supposed to take their phones at the entrance to the country at the airport. When leaving the phone returned to safety, you could not worry about it. Considering that until recently a foreigner simply could not buy a SIM card in his phone (one could only rent or buy a phone with a SIM card in the kit at a biting price), the discomfort was expressed primarily in the absence of the opportunity to listen to his player and pofotk Instagram on Instagram Korean nature. Now the ban is lifted .
The Internet in the DPRK is there, but is underdeveloped, even by the standards of our backwoods. All channels go through China, which is fraught with such unpleasant consequences as blocking such sites as Youtube, Vkontakte and Facebook by the Golden Shield . And many others, of course. Koreans are not to blame here - they themselves suffer.
However, I have not yet heard that the Internet has become widespread on home computers from the public. Exit to the web is possible only from embassies, offices of large companies and some metropolitan state institutions. According to rumors, to install the network, you must obtain permission from officials of a fairly high level. I can not say so or not, but in the conditions of Korean reality it sounds plausible.
The main part of the population uses a local analogue - the state-wide local network " Kvanmen ”. From the words of the Koreans themselves (I don’t understand the language, so when I looked at the resources of the internal network, I evaluated only the design), there are chats, forums, and my own “fishkinets”. On state resources, instead of banners, there are beautifully (from the point of view of Korean designers) decorated blocks with quotes from the leaders.
Judging by the popularity of pirated DVDs with movies and toys (as we have zero at the beginning), the speed of the internal network also leaves much to be desired.
I happened to visit the main state library - the People’s Palace of Studies (photo # 3 from the beginning of the post), the leading metropolitan university - Kim Irsen University and several enterprises, including a factory for the production of disks and video electronics, as well as a factory for the production of fruit juices and beverages.
Equipped with the above institutions at the present level, it was nice to inspect them. I am answering a question asked in the comments about the localizations and operating systems: I saw Windows XP in English and a local fully localized Linux called “Puglyn Pol” (“Red Star”):
The translator with whom he spoke, at home was Vista. Language did not specify.
Plant for the production of video electronics with a funny name for the Russian ear "Khana" (can be translated as "Unity", which suggests that the technology brought from the southern neighbors):
Fruit farm and juice factory:
That's all. Thank you for your attention, I hope the material was interesting :)
Finally, a few more common species, who were few:
To begin with, I was in Korea from personal interest - business and business trips have nothing to do with it. You should not expect to see here a dill in the style of the famous review of Tyoma Lebedev, exactly like thanksgiving a la "The Way Ilyich newspaper". I will confine myself to a few common neutral photos and go straight to the topic of the post:
')
Now about the main thing
There is an opinion that in North Korea there is no Internet at all, the population doesn’t have any components at all, and in government institutions there are only computer dinosaurs that have served their time. This is not at all the case, although when compared with Japan and South Korea, the contrast catches the eye.
cellular
Cellular communication accessible to the local population appeared in the DPRK just a few years ago. 3G communication services are provided by Koryolink , operated by Egyptian concern Orascom. The Internet through it is still unavailable - only calls and regular SMS. Foreigners are also forced to use its services - there is no roaming in the country yet. But they, unlike local, 3G Internet is already available .
By the way, until recently, foreigners were supposed to take their phones at the entrance to the country at the airport. When leaving the phone returned to safety, you could not worry about it. Considering that until recently a foreigner simply could not buy a SIM card in his phone (one could only rent or buy a phone with a SIM card in the kit at a biting price), the discomfort was expressed primarily in the absence of the opportunity to listen to his player and pofotk Instagram on Instagram Korean nature. Now the ban is lifted .
the Internet
The Internet in the DPRK is there, but is underdeveloped, even by the standards of our backwoods. All channels go through China, which is fraught with such unpleasant consequences as blocking such sites as Youtube, Vkontakte and Facebook by the Golden Shield . And many others, of course. Koreans are not to blame here - they themselves suffer.
However, I have not yet heard that the Internet has become widespread on home computers from the public. Exit to the web is possible only from embassies, offices of large companies and some metropolitan state institutions. According to rumors, to install the network, you must obtain permission from officials of a fairly high level. I can not say so or not, but in the conditions of Korean reality it sounds plausible.
The main part of the population uses a local analogue - the state-wide local network " Kvanmen ”. From the words of the Koreans themselves (I don’t understand the language, so when I looked at the resources of the internal network, I evaluated only the design), there are chats, forums, and my own “fishkinets”. On state resources, instead of banners, there are beautifully (from the point of view of Korean designers) decorated blocks with quotes from the leaders.
Judging by the popularity of pirated DVDs with movies and toys (as we have zero at the beginning), the speed of the internal network also leaves much to be desired.
Computer equipment in general
I happened to visit the main state library - the People’s Palace of Studies (photo # 3 from the beginning of the post), the leading metropolitan university - Kim Irsen University and several enterprises, including a factory for the production of disks and video electronics, as well as a factory for the production of fruit juices and beverages.
Equipped with the above institutions at the present level, it was nice to inspect them. I am answering a question asked in the comments about the localizations and operating systems: I saw Windows XP in English and a local fully localized Linux called “Puglyn Pol” (“Red Star”):
The translator with whom he spoke, at home was Vista. Language did not specify.
Plant for the production of video electronics with a funny name for the Russian ear "Khana" (can be translated as "Unity", which suggests that the technology brought from the southern neighbors):
Fruit farm and juice factory:
That's all. Thank you for your attention, I hope the material was interesting :)
Finally, a few more common species, who were few:
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/172001/
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