North Korean Economy Watch

Below is an interesting article on the DPRK’s Linux-based operating system: Red Star.

Not only does North Korea have “its own Internet” – a national information network independent from the US-based Internet regulator – it also has an operating system, developed under by order of Kim Jong-il.

Russian student Mikhail, who studies in the Kim Il-sung University and writes a blog from the Russian embassy in Pyongyang, has recently purchased the Red Star Operating System (OS) and tested it. Courtesy of Mikhail, RT gives you an opportunity to take glimpse at IT life of world’s most closed country.

The Red Star is a Linux-based OS developed by North Korean IT specialists last year. Readme file, which goes with the install disc, even gives a quote from Kim Jong-il about how important for DPRK is to have its own Linux-based operating system compatible with Korean traditions.

The version tested by Mikhail is the latest build, which, according to locals, still needs polishing. The OS is not popular (yet?), with most people who need one preferring Windows XP and Windows Vista.

Mikhail bought his copy for about $5 in an information center 5 minutes walk from the university dorm. Interestingly, no permission is required for it, which is probably explained by the regulation of the sale of computers.

The system has server and client versions, and apps can be bought separately at twice the price.

Installation of the Red Star is possible straight from the bootable disk, from hard drive, or via the net. The whole process takes 10 to 15 minutes. While the files are copied, the user is shown tips like in a Windows installation, saying that the system “is now faster and simpler”. Unlike Windows, you will not be allowed to select your system language: only Korean is available.

Then the system starts. Here is the logo on the start screen:

User selection screen is standard. User “root” is the default one, while user “Kim” was created by Mikhail. The picture is that of a popular Korean cartoon character.

Red Star desktop.

Red Star cannot be called modest in terms of system requirements. You will need at least a Pentium III 800 Mhz with 256 Mb RAM and astounding 3Gb hard drive space!

The desktop is pretty much standard, with a My Computer icon, a trash bin and a link to a system tour. The red star in bottom left corner opens the system menu, while icons next to it are the quick launch panel. Notice the clock on the left – the year is 99th of the Juche Idea, the official North Korean ideology.

My Computer launches the file browser. Here is how it looks:

Standard applications for the system are low in number: web-browser “My Country” (which is actually Firefox in disguise), a simple word processor, a picture viewer, a pdf reader, players for audio and video files, a file archiver, a virtual disk manager and stuff like calculator or symbol table. All the applications except the web-browser are named after their functionality.

The OS has its own keyboard layouts for Korean (does not match the Windows version), English, Russian, Chinese and Japanese.

There are also four games: Minesweeper, Klondike solitaire, Jawbreaker and a logic game where the player builds correct chemical formulae.

Applications on the second disk included: service programs for the client version of Red Star, which strictly speaking should have been on the first disk, an office app suite “We”, similar to OpenOffice and another similar software suite, a program for recording CD/DVD, an e-mail client “Pigeon” (after the mail-delivering bird), Janggi board game (Korean chess), a fax communication tool, antivirus “Woodpecker”, notebook “My Comrade”, a graphics editing program, firewall “Pyongyang Fortress”, an engineer’s calculator and a Windows emulator.

The Application Manager shown here is also used for system updates.

Naenara web browser was successfully recognized by Firefox website, which offered downloads of the latest Korean version of the browser for Linux i686. Note that the default search engine is not Google but Naenara BBS. Since Mikhail was tinkering with the system in the embassy, where the Korean national network is not available, he had no opportunity to do some test searches.

Mikhail did test the antivirus, however, which (along with the firewall) was built from scratch by North Korean coders rather than re-written from an open source applications. It did well at finding and killing the viruses offered to it.

The Windows emulator worked well too. Mikhail launched Warcraft 3, and the game worked smoothly. So did the dictionary software and a digital library available on the disk.

What is interesting for a North Korean product is the near-total absence of propaganda – unless you treat the word “red” in its name as an instance.

Read the full story here:
North Korea’s “secret cyber-weapon”: brand new Red Star OS
rt.com
3/1/010

Here is the original Russian source.

Open Radio
Hyelim Kim
2/18/2010

Changdeok, North Korea’s primary word processor like Hangul in South Korea, is a true mirror of the idolization of Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il.
 
When Changdeok was first launched, the version 1.0, had April 15th, 1990 marked as the release date. It is Kim Il-Sung’s birthday.
 
As a word processor, Changdeok was developed to a 7.0 version in 2002 and has as superior quality of its functions, such as Hangul or MS-Word. It provides Korean, English, Chinese, Russian, and Japanese characters and other various functions such as 2 or 3 dimensions character effects and complex arithmetic calculations.
 
It has special characteristics devised especially for Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il. KPS 9566-2003 legislated in 2003 is the most recent version of North Korean industrial standards. 22 of a total 16,776 KPS 9566-2003 characters are not included in Unicode set, a computer standard for encoding characters expressed in most of the world’s writing systems. 16 of KPS 9566-2003 are special characters. And the rest 6– “Kim”, “IL”, “Sung”, “Kim”, “Jong”, and “IL– are reduplications only uses for Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il.
 
Therefore, “Kim Il-Sung” and “Kim Jong-Il” are recognized as special characters on Character Map and automatically switched to Bold text. But there is nothing wrong with this system because nobody has the same name as Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il in North Korea.
 
Another Changdeok system indicating the absolute power of Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-il are CTRL modifier keys. <CTRL+I> for “Kim Il-Sung” and <CTRL+J> for “Kim Jong-Il” are only modifier keys allowed in the Changdeok system.

These special characters and modifier keys is one side of Kim Il-Sung’s and Kim Jong-Il’s idolization. But, considering “Kim Il-Sung” and “Kim Jong-Il” in North Korean published works must be in bold text, special characters and modifier keys are for convenient editing processes as well.
 
The last distinct feature of the Changdeok system aew font names designed and systemized by the Korea Computer Center and Pyongyang Program Center for convenient electronic publishing. Chollima, Kwangmyong, and Cheongbong are major ones among those interesting fonts.
 
Chollima font is named after the Chollima campaign which led to North Korea’s economic development in 1950s and 60s. It is often used for posters and advertisements.
 
Kwangmyong is the second famous font. Kwangmyong means Kim Jong-Il, and it was named after ‘Baekdu-Kwangmyong legend,’ a novel written to deify Kim Jong-Il.
 
Cheongbong font is a memorial for celebration of Kim Jong-Il’s victory in the battle with Japanese troops during the colonial period. This font is often used for long body paragraphs of texts as well as titles and subtitles.
 
As the Cheongbong system shows, the status of Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il are special, even in a word processor program. In other words, a field of software is also used as a means for promotion and instigation of the North Korean dictatorship.

From GPI:

In the current financial and economic situation, companies face many challenges. They must cut costs, develop new products and find new markets. In these fields, North-Korea might be an interesting option. Since a few years, it is opening its doors to foreign enterprises. The labor costs are the lowest of Asia, and its skilled labor is of a high quality. It established free trade zones to attract foreign investors and there are several sectors, including textile industry, shipbuilding, agro business, logistics, mining and Information Technology that can be considered for trade and investment.
 
European Business Mission (May 2010) & Pyongyang Spring International Trade Fair
Information Flyer Here(PDF)
In order to explore these business opportunities, we are organizing again a business mission to North-Korea (15 - 22 May). We will also visit the annual Pyongyang Spring International Trade Fair. This fair can be used by European companies to come in contact with potential buyers and suppliers in North-Korea. Information abouth both events has been attached.
 
North-Korean investment mission to visit The Netherlands (February)
There are investment opportunities in several areas, such as textiles; agro business (e.g. export of vegetables, fruit and flowers to South-Korea); mining (e.g. zinc, mica, tungsten, rare metals); real estate (e.g. office buildings); renewable energy (e.g. windenergy, batteries); Information Technology; electronics; chemicals and tourism. A high-ranking delegation from North-Korea will visit The Netherlands at the end of February, in order to discuss these opportunities in detail and to present specific investment projects. We can be contacted for further details.
 
New book on European - North Korean relations
Information Flyer Here (PDF)
This spring, the Hanns Seidel Foundation (Germany) will publish a new book about the relations between Europe and North-Korea. The publication: “Europe - North Korea: Between Humanitarianism and Business?” also contains two chapters about trade development and business issues - including my article on IT-cooperation. Its Table Of Contents has been attached.     

With best regards, Paul Tjia (director) 
GPI Consultancy, P.O. Box 26151, 3002 ED Rotterdam, The Netherlands
E-mail: paul@gpic.nl tel: +31-10-4254172  fax: +31-10-4254317 Website: www.gpic.nl

According to Yonhap:

The latest “Issue and Policy” report by the Science and Technology Policy Institute said North Korea has traditionally been strong in the polymer chemistry and single carbon material sectors, as well as in such biotech areas as animal cloning. It has also been competitive in nano science, mathematics, nuclear technology and missiles.

The report added that Pyongyang has in recent years built up its competitive knowhow in software, including the Linux computer operating system, as part of efforts to use science and engineering to bolster economic growth.

The communist country operates the Korean Computer Center and Pyongyang Information Center dedicated to improving the country’s software infrastructure.

“Cooperation can take place in relatively new fields such as nanotech, biology and chemistry where North Korea has traditionally been strong,” the report said.

The latest findings, however, said that because there are differences in the quality of research conducted by engineers and scientists from the two countries, cooperation should take place in stages.

In the report, the think tank recommended that South Korea first provide assistance to upgrade North Korea’s laboratory equipment and help train experts. After making inroads into these areas, Seoul can move to carry out full-fledged joint research and open laboratories where scientists from both countries can work together, the report said.

Read the full story here:
Two Koreas can cooperate in chemistry, biotech and nano science: report
Yonhap
1/6/10

eleROM, Sinji JV Group and Phoenix Commercial Ventures Ltd are proud to present learnwithelsi: an innovative new web-based e-learning platform.

learnwithelsi derives its name from the “el” of eleROM and “si” of Sinji. The system is jointly managed by eleROM and Sinji. Subscribers can use the system to manage and study educational courses. learnwithelsi combines the standard features of traditional e-learning platforms with additional features:

* Lectures can be presented real time, even when the lecturers and students are geographically disbursed
* The lecturer can interact with students via video link, whiteboard and instant messaging
* The lecture can be recorded and stored for future access (available from November)
* Every user has tools that enable him/her to create learning contents, manage training activities and interact with other users
* Additionally there are a host of other features; documents can be managed, online exercises created, learning paths created, group work coordinated, assignments produced, forums developed, agendas set, announcements can be made and statistics can be monitored.

Sinji ’s and eleROM ’s experience in software and e-learning guarantee the quality and reliability of the product. Additionally, learnwithelsi comes with 24 hour support.

Unlike other e-learning platforms, learnwithelsi is offered directly to training institutes for them to create their own courses; thereby enabling them to concentrate on the content of their courses, without having to worry about the technology.

The product follows the philosophy of SAS (software as a service). You don’t need to install anything on your server. You need only an Internet connection to use the platform.

Further system and functional enhancements will be made, eg as from November the video lecture can be recorded and stored for future access.

You can try a sample course on the learnwithelsi platform by clicking here. (login: sample, password: course).

———–

Here is a PDF of the  press release.

Institute for Far Eastern Studies (IFES)
NK Brief No. 09-11-04-2
11/4/2009

The North Korean monthly publication “Chollima” stressed in a recent (September, 2009) edition the need to improve efficiency in production and administrative activities, emphasizing that if the North is to succeed at becoming an “economic power,” then economic management and administrative activities need to become “informationalized.”

In an article titled “Informationalization of Economic Management and Administrative Activity,” the magazine stated, “In order to meet the demands for science and technology development in the era of the information industry, improvement of the socialist economic management has emerged as an important issue.”

The magazine also offered a solution, suggesting that computers and IT resources be ensured first in order to “informationalize” economic management and administrative activities, and that communications equipment be modernized, stating that construction of basic facilities was an urgent task.

In addition, program industries used in the economic sector should be developed, and planning, statistical, and accounting programs, in particular, need to be connected across the country.

Along with this, the magazine noted that the development of information science is closely related to that of information technology, and that research efforts regarding information science need to be strengthened. The article called for further development of basic elementary management systems education, information theory research, and, of course, systems engineering, legal administration, and other economic science fields.

“Informationalization” of economic management and administrative activities is based on IT resources, and focuses on automating statistical and accounting practices in order to strengthen economic management controls and to boost productivity and efficiency.

On August 11, the Rodong Sinmun also emphasized “informationalization,” referring to the current times as the “information economy age” and the “informationalization age,” stating that “today’s war, absent the sound of gunfire, is a war of brains, a technology war,” and, “technological revolution is bravely marching forward at breakneck speed.”

According to Reuters:

North Korea’s communications ministry was behind a series of cyber attacks against South Korean and U.S. websites in July, the South’s spy chief was quoted on Friday as saying.

Dozens of major U.S. and South Korean government and business sites were slowed or disabled with traffic generated by malicious software planted on personal computers unknown to their users.

South Korean officials said at the time that North Korea was a prime suspect.

“The attacks on Korean and U.S. Internet sites were traced back to circuits originating in China,” the South’s spy chief Won Sei-hoon was quoted as telling a closed-door parliamentary committee meeting by Yonhap news agency.

“North Korea’s communications ministry has been confirmed as leasing the line,” Won reportedly said.

Some South Korean government websites, including the Defence Ministry and National Intelligence Service, were affected in the wave of attacks that lasted several days but did not lead to a breach of sensitive material or damage to online infrastructure, the agencies said.

Read the full story here:
North Korea behind cyber attacks-South’s spy chief
Reuters
10/29/2009

According to the Daily NK:

North Korean citizens are not only sensitive to the style of their clothing or shoes, but also the brands of their accessories such as bicycles and MP3 players.

The reason behind the North Korean special emphasis on such items is apparent in the North Korean adage, “What one eats is not as important as what one wears.” It is not particularly evident whether one has eaten or not in the short term, but attire gives away the level of wealth in a household.

Just as household affluence is determined by the type of vehicle or house one owns in a capitalist society, the type of clothing or shoes that one wears, the particular brand of cigarettes in the pocket of a person or the kinds of objects one owns indicates the wealth of a person in North Korea and even decides the way in which a person is treated.

Two examples are the USB memory sticks and MP3 players which have started circulating there.

An inside source in North Korea testified, “Teenagers nowadays may not know how a computer works, but will carry at least one USB memory stick along with their keys. Middle school students living in cities have to own at least one MP3 player in order to be acknowledged as coming from a middle class background.”

So, in order to cement or exaggerate their social positions, youths go out and get an MP3 player, even if it means foregoing meals, and the parents who do not want to see their children getting alienated will save every penny to buy these ‘essential’ items.

Read the full story below:
Teenagers, the Generation Keeping up with the Times
Daily NK
Moon Sung Hwee, from Jagang in 2006
10/7/2009

GPI Consultancy
PDF marketing brochure here

One of the results of the recent visit of former US President Bill Clinton to Pyongyang is a renewed interest to explore business opportunities with North-Korea. The current improvements in the relations between North- and South-Korea will fuel this growing interest as well.

North-Korea is now opening its doors to foreign enterprises. It is competing with other Asian countries by offering skilled labour for low wages. It established free trade zones and several sectors, such as renewable energy, shipbuilding, agro business, textile, tourism, logistics and mining, can be considered for trade and investment. In addition, the country is attractive in the field of Information Technology (see photo).

Do you want to be informed about these interesting business opportunities? Then join our  unique afternoon seminar on Monday 21 September 2009 in Beijing. Three speakers from Europe will address various aspects of doing business in North-Korea, and  they will also share their own experiences. The program of this informative seminar is as follows:

15:30-16:00 hours  Registration and welcome of attendees

16:00-16:30 hours  General introduction: the latest developments in doing business with North-Korea

16:30-17:00 hours  North-Korea: an upcoming IT-outsourcing destination

17:00-17:30 hours  Experiences of some large European companies, such as ING and Unilever, in North-Korea

17:30-17:45 hours  Questions and answers

17:45-18:15 hours  Informal meeting

Several short videos (e.g. on software development and the Kaesong Industrial Zone) will also be shown. Details of the program, including the location, can be found in the attached file. Please feel free to forward this mail to other interested persons.

With best regards, Paul Tjia (director)
GPI Consultancy, P.O. Box 26151, 3002 ED Rotterdam, The Netherlands
E-mail: paul@gpic.nl tel: +31-10-4254172  fax: +31-10-4254317 Website: www.gpic.nl

GPI Consultancy
Sept 19-26, 2009
1820 Euros

“In the current financial and economic situation, companies face many challenges. They must cut costs, develop new products and find new markets. In these fields, North-Korea might be an interesting option. Inspired by the economic successes of its neighbouring country China , North-Korea has since a few years opened its doors to foreign enterprises. It established several free trade zones to attract foreign investors and there are several sectors, including textile industry, shipbuilding, agro business, logistics, renewable energy, mining and Information Technology, that can be considered for trade and investment.

North-Korea is competing with other Asian countries by offering skilled labor for very low monthly wages and by offering tax incentives. Last year, North-Korea’s exports rose with 23 percent and its imports with 32 percent. Do you want to explore new business opportunities for your company? Then join us from 19 - 26 September 2009 on our trade & investment mission to North-Korea. The program includes individual matchmaking, company visits, network receptions and dinners. Furthermore, we will visit the annual Autumn International Trade Fair in Pyongyang. We will also meet European business people who are working and living in North-Korea.

The mission is meant for entrepreneurs from various business sectors; tailormade meetings will be arranged by our local partner, the DPRK Chamber of Commerce. The program of this unique mission has been attached and we can be contacted for further details. In case you want to participate: please register as soon as possible, so we can start the visa-application procedure.”

Some examples of investment opportunities in North-Korea:
1. http://www.gpic.nl/invest(hungsong).pdf
2. http://www.gpic.nl/invest(clock).pdf

GPI contact information:
Paul Tjia, Senior Consultant
GPI Consultancy, .O. Box 26151, 3002 ED Rotterdam, The Netherlands
E-mail: paul@gpic.nl tel: +31-10-4254172 fax: +31-10-4254317 Website: www.gpic.nl