Archive for the ‘Samcholli General Corp.’ Category

NK Baduk Software to Hit Seoul

Wednesday, September 6th, 2006

Korea Times
9/6/2006
Kim Tae-gyu

Starting today, a South Korean venture start-up will market a North Korean paduk computer game, Silver Star 2006, here that is arguably the most advanced program for paduk, also known as go.

ForOneBiz yesterday announced the scheme to launch Silver Star 2006 that has won the FOST Cup, the annual computer paduk championship participated in by global contenders, for the past three consecutive years.

“In June, we reached an agreement with the North’s Samcholli General Corp. to debut Silver Star 2006 here,” ForOneBiz chief executive officer Kim Byung-su said.

“We inked a commission-based deal, not the conventional lump sum-based ones. We will take roughly 90 percent of sales income while the remaining 10 percent will go to Samcholli,” he added.

The price of the program, which can be downloaded at the Web site of ForOneBiz (www.i-silverstar.com) or ordered by calling (02) 2115-6035, is 33,000 won ($34.5).

The Silver Star series, called Unbyol in Korean, was developed by the North’s state-run Korea Computer Center in the 1990s. Experts say it has the most outstanding algorithm for baduk.

“We plan to improve Silver Star 2006 further by cooperating with North Korea. It will work because the North has a competitive edge in software while the South today leads the world in offline baduk techniques,” Kim said.

This is not the first time for North Korean software to go on sale in the South.

Earlier in March, the Seoul-headquartered BH Partners began selling the Speed-K4.0, a computer program developed by the North Korean agency, at its Web site (www.bhpartners.co.kr).

People can download the input software, which helps them easily type in sentences from a word processor or e-mail, at 5,500 won.

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Korea Telecom in deal DPRK firm

Monday, July 17th, 2006

Korea Times
7/17/2006

KT, South Korea’s leading fixed-line telecom carrier, signed a 360 million won ($380,000) outsourcing contract last week with a North Korean agency to develop six smart software programs.

A Ministry of Unification official yesterday said the deal between KT and Samcholli General Corp. was struck last Thursday as planned (see the front page of The Korea Times, July 13 edition).

“Samcholli agreed to develop six computer programs in such fields as next-generation networks and voice recognition by the end of this year for 360 million won,’’ said the ministry official, who declined to be named.

“Under the contract, KT can refuse to pay the promised money, if Samcholli fails to meet pre-set requirements by the operator,’’ he added.

However, the two sides could not reach an agreement on the pilot run of value-added processing this year with a pair of telecom items _ polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and splitters _ for some reason.

They initially planned to ink a deal on the test run of the value-added processing, under which KT will provide raw materials while Samcholli will crank out final products in return for commission.

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South’s Korea Telecom hires DPRK firm for software development

Wednesday, July 12th, 2006

From the Korea Times:

KT to Sign Deal With NK Firm

By Kim Tae-gyu
Staff Reporter

South Korea’s leading fixed-line telecom carrier, KT, Thursday plans to sign a 360 million won ($380,000) outsourcing contract in Pyongyang with a North Korean institute to develop six sophisticated software programs.

A Ministry of Unification official said Wednesday two KT executives went via Shenyang, China, to the North Korean capital to sign the deal with the North’s Samcholli General Corp.

However, when contacted, KT refused to confirm the contract.

Nonetheless, the ministry official, who declined to be named, said: “Samcholli will develop six computer programs in such fields as next-generation networks and voice recognition for 360 million won by the end of this December.”

“Plus, they are to agree to launch a pilot run of valued-added processing this year with a pair of telecom products _ polyvinyl chloride (PVC) coffins and splitters,” he said.

Under the envisioned agreement on the valued-added processing, KT will provide raw materials to Samcholli, which will manufacture the products in return for some commissions.

The official said the range of valued-added products will be substantially expanded next year should this year’s trials proved successful.

Asked whether the step will be an issue given the North’s soured relationship with Seoul over the recent test-firing of seven missiles, the unnamed official flatly rebuffed such concerns.

“Basically, we think this kind of Inter-Korean cooperation between private entities should continue regardless of political landscapes,” he said.

“In addition, this is a commercial contract, not one aimed at helping the North. If Samcholli fails to meet requirements of KT, the latter can refuse to pay the promised money,” he added.

Indeed, KT struck a similar deal with Samcholli last year and the former state monopoly paid 164,000 euros (nearly 200 million won) only after Samcholli finished developing the telecom software as scheduled.

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