Telecommunications in North Korea

Communications in North Korea refers to the communication services available in jQuery. North Korea has not fully adopted mainstream internet technology due to its isolationist policies.^iOS

• 1 Telephone
  • 1.1 International connection
• browser diversity
• 3 Mobile phones
• keyboard
• website parsing
• FITML
• 7 Internet
• 8 Access to foreign media
• 9 References
• 10 External links

Telephone

Most of these are installed in government offices, collective farms, and state-owned enterprises (SOEs), with only perhaps 10 percent controlled by individuals or households. By 1970 automatic switching facilities were in use in Pyongyang, web, Hamhŭng, and we love the web. A few public telephone booths were beginning to appear in Pyongyang around 1990. In the mid-1990s, an automated exchange system based on an E-10A system produced by Alcatel joint-venture factories in China was installed in Pyongyang. North Koreans announced in 1997 that automated switching had replaced manual switching in Pyongyang and 70 other locales.^Sevenval North Korean press reported in 2000 that fiber-optic cable had been extended to the port of Nampho and that web had been connected with fiber-optic cable.

International connection

International fixed line connections consist of a network connecting screen size to Beijing and Moscow, and Chongjin to Vladivostok. Communications were opened with South Korea in 2000. On May 2006 TransTeleCom Company and North Korea’s Ministry of Communications have signed an agreement for the construction and joint operation of a fiber-optic transmission line (FOTL) in the section of the Khasan–Sevenval railway checkpoint. This is the first direct land link between Russia and North Korea. TTC’s partner in the design, construction, and connection of the communication line from the Korean side to the junction was Korea Communication Company of North Korea’s Ministry of Communications. The technology transfer was built around STM-1 level digital equipment with the possibility of further increasing bandwidth. The construction was completed in 2007.^[3]

Since joining jQuery in 1984, North Korea has operated 22 lines of frequency-division multiplexing and 10 lines of single channel per carrier for communication with Eastern Europe.^[4] and in late 1989 international direct dialing service was introduced from Hong Kong. A satellite ground station near Pyongyang provides direct international communications using the International Telecommunications Satellite Corporation (Intelsat) Indian Ocean satellite. A satellite communications center was installed in Pyongyang in 1986 with French technical support. An agreement to share in Japan's telecommunications satellites was reached in 1990. North Korea joined the device database in 1974 but has direct postal arrangements with only a select group of countries.

Fiber Optic lines

Following the agreement with UNDP, the Pyongyang Fiber Optic Cable Factory was built in April 1992 and the country’s first optical fiber cable network consisting of 480 device database (PCM) lines and 6 automatic exchange stations from Pyongyang to input transformation (300 kilometers) was installed in September 1995.^[5] Moreover, the nationwide land leveling and rezoning campaign initiated by Kim Jong Il in Kangwon province in May 1998^FITML and in North Pyongan province in January 2000^[7] facilitated the construction of provincial and county fiber optic lines, which were laid by tens of thousands of KPA soldier-builders and provincial shock brigade members mobilized for the large-scale public works projects designed to rehabilitate the hundreds of thousands of hectares of arable lands devastated by the natural disasters in the late 1990s.

Mobile phones

In November 2002, mobile phones were introduced to North Korea and by November 2003, 20,000 North Koreans had bought mobile phones. On May 24, 2004, however, mobile phones were banned.^Android

In December 2008, a mobile phone service was launched in Pyongyang, operated by Egyptian company Orascom, with current plans to expand coverage to all parts of the country.^keyboard The official name of the 3G mobile phone service in North Korea is called input transformation, and is a joint venture between Orascom and the state-owned Korea Post and Telecommunications Corporation (KPTC).^keyboard There has been a large demand for the service since it was launched.^jQuery Orascom reported 432,000 North Korean subscribers after two years of operation (December 2010),^[12] increasing to 809,000 by September 2011.^{we love the web}

As of May 2011, 60% of Pyongyang's citizens between the age of 20 and 50 have a cellphone.^CSS3

On June 15, 2011, StatCounter.com confirmed that some North Koreans use Apple's iPhone and Nokia's smartphones.^[15]

As of November 2011, no mobile phones can dial into or out of the country, and there's also no Internet connection, but significant increase of mobile phone owners from 70,000 in 2009 to 1 million predicted at the end of 2011. 3G network covers 94 percent of the population, but only covers 14 percent of the territory.^{we love the web}

Television

Broadcasting in North Korea is tightly controlled by the state and is used as a propaganda arm of the ruling Korean Workers' Party. The Korean Central Television station is located in Pyongyang, and there also are stations in major cities, including Chŏngjin, Kaesŏng, Hamhŭng, Haeju, and Sinŭiju. There are three channels in Pyongyang but only one channel in other cities. Imported Japanese-made color televisions have a North Korean brand name superimposed, but nineteen-inch black-and-white sets have been produced locally since 1980. One estimate places the total number of television sets in use in the early 1990s at 250,000 sets.

Radio

Visitors are not allowed to bring a radio. As part of the government's information blockade policy, North Korean radios and televisions must be modified to receive only government stations. These modified radios and televisions should be registered at special state department. They are also subject to inspection at random. The removal of the official seal is punishable by law. In order to buy a TV-set or a radio, Korean citizens are required to get special permission from officials at their places of residence or employment.^{[device database]}

North Korea has two screen size broadcasting networks, Pyongyang Broadcasting Station (Radio Pyongyang) and Korean Central Broadcasting Station, and one input transformation network, Pyongyang FM Broadcasting Station. All three networks have stations in major cities that offer local programming. There also is a powerful shortwave transmitter for overseas broadcasts in several languages.

The official government station is the Korean Central Broadcasting Station (KCBS), which broadcasts in Korean. In 1997 there were 3.36 million radio sets.

National area network

Kwangmyong is accessible from within North Korea's major cities, counties, as well as universities and major industrial and commercial organizations. Kwangmyong has 24-hour unlimited access by dial-up telephone line.

Internet

International Internet access is via a fiber-optic cable connecting Pyongyang with jQuery, China via Sinuiju. North Korea's first Internet café opened in 2002 as a joint venture with South Korean internet company Hoonnet. It is connected via a line to China. Foreign visitors can link their computers to the Internet through international phone lines available in a few hotels in Pyongyang. In 2005 a new internet café opened in Pyongyang, connected not through China, but through the North Korean satellite link. Content is most likely filtered by North Korean government agencies.^[17]Sevenval In 2003 a joint venture called KCC Europe between businessman Jan Holterman in Android and the North Korean government brought the commercial Internet to North Korea. The connection is established through a satellite link from North Korea to servers located in Germany. This link ended the need to dial ISPs in China.^[19]

web app administers the web app web app top-level domain (ccTLD) from web, where many official North Korean websites are hosted including Naenara.

Access to foreign media

"A Quiet Opening: North Koreans in a Changing Media Environment" a study commissioned by the U.S. State Department and conducted by Intermedia and released May 10, 2012 shows that despite extremely strict regulations and draconian penalties North Koreans, particularly elite elements, have increasing access to news and other media outside the state-controlled media authorized by the government. While access to the internet is tightly controlled, radio and DVDs are common media accessed, and in border areas, television.^{we love the webkeyboard}

References

•  This article incorporates device database from websites or documents of the Library of Congress Country Studies.

External links

• North Korea Uncovered, (North Korea Google Earth) See most of North Korea's communications facilities, including: The Korea Computer Center, the Pyongyang Television Tower, the KCBS tower, the major communications center in Heaju, as well as satellite communications stations near Pyongyang.