Communications in North Korea
Encyclopedia
Communications in North Korea refers to the communication services available in North Korea
. North Korea has yet to fully adopt mainstream internet technology due to its isolationist policies.
By 1970 automatic switching facilities were in use in Pyongyang
, Sinŭiju
, Hamhŭng
, and Hyesan
. 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 P’yongyang and 70 other locales.
North Korean press reported in 2000 that fiber-optic cable had been extended to the port of Nampho and that North Pyongan province had been connected with fiber-optic cable.
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–Tumangang
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 be built around STM-1 level digital equipment with the possibility of further increasing bandwidth. The construction was completed in 2007.
Since joining Intersputnik
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. 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 Universal Postal Union
in 1974 but has direct postal arrangements with only a select group of countries.
According to the CIA World Factbook, the telephone system is inadequate and no telephone directories are available. There were 1.18 million telephone main lines in use in 2007.
built in April 1992 and the country’s first optical fiber cable network consisting of 480
Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) lines and 6 automatic exchange stations from Pyongyang
to Hamhung
(300 kilometers) was installed in September 1995. Moreover, the nationwide land leveling and rezoning campaign initiated by Kim Jong Il in Kangwon province in May 1998 and in North Pyongan province in January 2000 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.
which is open for government officials only. Foreigners are not allowed to use (and also until recently to keep) mobile phones in North Korea, although certain high profile visitors such as leadership from the New York Philharmonic
which visited North Korea in February 2008, were given rental phones to facilitate direct international communications.
In December 2008, a mobile phone service was launched in Pyongyang with current plans to expand coverage to all parts of the country. It is being installed and managed by the Egyptian company Orascom. The official name of the 3G mobile phone service in North Korea is called Koryolink
, and is a joint venture between Orascom and the state-owned Korea Post and Telecommunications Corporation (KPTC). There has been a large demand for the service since it was launched, even among ordinary citizens. In November 2009, Time magazine reported that on a recent group tour, the North Korean tour guide had a mobile phone which was a gift from her boyfriend. In their first quarter 2011 earnings release, Orascom reports more than 500,000 North Korean subscribers after two years of operation. The foreign joint-venture Daedong Credit Bank in Pyongyang gives a North Korean mobile phone number with their contact details.
Current domestic North Korean subscriptions to the Koryolink mobile phone network are around 185,000.
As of May 2011, 60% of Pyongyang's citizens between the age of 20 and 50 have a cellphone.
On June 15th, 2011, StatCounter.com confirmed that some North Koreans use Apple's iPhone and Nokia's smartphones.
Until 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.
through the black market in spite of government efforts to ban them. As the number of people using them grows, it is likely that cellphones that are web-enabled through Chinese servers will become more common. In addition, South Korean companies such as Samsung have been increasing their market share in China, which will likely lead North Koreans to have Korean-language information through their cellphones.
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.
North Korea has two AM radio broadcasting networks, Pyongyang Broadcasting Station (Radio Pyongyang) and Korean Central Broadcasting Station, and one FM 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.
with
Dandong
, 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. In 2003 a joint venture called KCC Europe
between businessman Jan Holterman in Berlin
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.
KCC Europe
administers the .kp
country code
top-level domain
(ccTLD) from Berlin
, where many official North Korean websites are hosted including Naenara
.
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
. North Korea has yet to fully adopt mainstream internet technology due to its isolationist policies.
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
Pyongyang
Pyongyang is the capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, commonly known as North Korea, and the largest city in the country. Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River and, according to preliminary results from the 2008 population census, has a population of 3,255,388. The city was...
, Sinŭiju
Sinuiju
Sinŭiju is a city in North Korea, neighboring with Dandong City, China via international border and is the capital of North P'yŏngan Province...
, Hamhŭng
Hamhung
Hamhŭng is North Korea's second largest city, and the capital of South Hamgyŏng Province. In late 2005, nearby Hŭngnam was made a ward within Hamhŭng-si. It has a population of 768,551 as of 2008.-Geography:...
, and Hyesan
Hyesan
Hyesan is a city in the northern part of the northern Ryanggang province of North Korea. It is a hub of river transportation as well as a product distribution centre. It is also the administrative centre of Ryanggang Province...
. 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 P’yongyang and 70 other locales.
North Korean press reported in 2000 that fiber-optic cable had been extended to the port of Nampho and that North Pyongan province had been connected with fiber-optic cable.
International connection
International fixed line connections consist of a network connecting PyongyangPyongyang
Pyongyang is the capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, commonly known as North Korea, and the largest city in the country. Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River and, according to preliminary results from the 2008 population census, has a population of 3,255,388. The city was...
to Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
and Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, 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–Tumangang
Tumangang
Tumangang Workers' District is a town in Sonbong, Rason, North Korea. It is the closest town of North Korea to the border with Russia. Tumangang sits on the Tumen River, and across the river is the Russian town of Khasan. A train connects Khasan with Tumangang and from there to Rason. A road also...
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 be built around STM-1 level digital equipment with the possibility of further increasing bandwidth. The construction was completed in 2007.
Since joining Intersputnik
Intersputnik
The Intersputnik International Organization of Space Communications commonly known as Intersputnik is an international satellite communications services organization founded on November 15, 1971, in Moscow by the Soviet Union along with a group of eight formerly socialist states...
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. 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
Intelsat
Intelsat, Ltd. is a communications satellite services provider.Originally formed as International Telecommunications Satellite Organization , it was—from 1964 to 2001—an intergovernmental consortium owning and managing a constellation of communications satellites providing international broadcast...
) 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 Universal Postal Union
Universal Postal Union
The Universal Postal Union is an international organization that coordinates postal policies among member nations, in addition to the worldwide postal system. The UPU contains four bodies consisting of the Congress, the Council of Administration , the Postal Operations Council and the...
in 1974 but has direct postal arrangements with only a select group of countries.
According to the CIA World Factbook, the telephone system is inadequate and no telephone directories are available. There were 1.18 million telephone main lines in use in 2007.
Fiber Optic lines
Following the agreement with UNDP, the Pyongyang Fiber Optic Cable Factory wasbuilt in April 1992 and the country’s first optical fiber cable network consisting of 480
Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) lines and 6 automatic exchange stations from Pyongyang
to Hamhung
Hamhung
Hamhŭng is North Korea's second largest city, and the capital of South Hamgyŏng Province. In late 2005, nearby Hŭngnam was made a ward within Hamhŭng-si. It has a population of 768,551 as of 2008.-Geography:...
(300 kilometers) was installed in September 1995. Moreover, the nationwide land leveling and rezoning campaign initiated by Kim Jong Il in Kangwon province in May 1998 and in North Pyongan province in January 2000 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. North Korea supposedly still has a mobile network in PyongyangPyongyang
Pyongyang is the capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, commonly known as North Korea, and the largest city in the country. Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River and, according to preliminary results from the 2008 population census, has a population of 3,255,388. The city was...
which is open for government officials only. Foreigners are not allowed to use (and also until recently to keep) mobile phones in North Korea, although certain high profile visitors such as leadership from the New York Philharmonic
New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"...
which visited North Korea in February 2008, were given rental phones to facilitate direct international communications.
In December 2008, a mobile phone service was launched in Pyongyang with current plans to expand coverage to all parts of the country. It is being installed and managed by the Egyptian company Orascom. The official name of the 3G mobile phone service in North Korea is called Koryolink
Koryolink
Koryolink , a joint venture between Egyptian company Orascom Telecom Holding and the state-owned Korea Post and Telecommunications Corporation , is North Korea's only mobile operator. According to Orascom quoted in BusinessWeek, the company had 125,661 subscribers in May 2010. By March 2011, the...
, and is a joint venture between Orascom and the state-owned Korea Post and Telecommunications Corporation (KPTC). There has been a large demand for the service since it was launched, even among ordinary citizens. In November 2009, Time magazine reported that on a recent group tour, the North Korean tour guide had a mobile phone which was a gift from her boyfriend. In their first quarter 2011 earnings release, Orascom reports more than 500,000 North Korean subscribers after two years of operation. The foreign joint-venture Daedong Credit Bank in Pyongyang gives a North Korean mobile phone number with their contact details.
Current domestic North Korean subscriptions to the Koryolink mobile phone network are around 185,000.
As of May 2011, 60% of Pyongyang's citizens between the age of 20 and 50 have a cellphone.
On June 15th, 2011, StatCounter.com confirmed that some North Koreans use Apple's iPhone and Nokia's smartphones.
Until November 2011, no mobile phones can dial into or out of the country, and there's also no Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
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.
Black market cell phones
Rebecca MacKinnon, a research fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard, says that Chinese cellphones have reached North KoreaNorth Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
through the black market in spite of government efforts to ban them. As the number of people using them grows, it is likely that cellphones that are web-enabled through Chinese servers will become more common. In addition, South Korean companies such as Samsung have been increasing their market share in China, which will likely lead North Koreans to have Korean-language information through their cellphones.
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 TelevisionKorean Central Television
Korean Central Television is a state news broadcaster in North Korea, located in the capital city, Pyongyang. KCTV is the only official source of television news for North Koreans. The reach of the programming is limited, as there are only around 1.2 million television sets in the country of over...
station is located in Pyongyang, and there also are stations in major cities, including Chŏngjin
Chongjin
Ch'ŏngjin is the capital of North Korea's North Hamgyŏng Province and the country's third largest city. From 1960 to 1967 and again from 1977 to 1985, Ch'ŏngjin was administered separately from North Hamgyŏng as a Directly Governed City...
, Kaesŏng
Kaesong
Kaesŏng is a city in North Hwanghae Province, southern North Korea , a former Directly Governed City, and the capital of Korea during the Koryo Dynasty. The city is near Kaesŏng Industrial Region and it contains the remains of the Manwoldae palace. It was formally named Songdo while it was the...
, Hamhŭng, Haeju
Haeju
Haeju is a city located in South Hwanghae Province near Haeju Bay in North Korea. It is the administrative centre of South Hwanghae Province. As of 2000, the population of the city is estimated to be 236,000. At the beginning of 20th century, it became a strategic port in Sino-Korean trade...
, 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.North Korea has two AM radio broadcasting networks, Pyongyang Broadcasting Station (Radio Pyongyang) and Korean Central Broadcasting Station, and one FM 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.
Internet
International Internet access is via a fiber-optic cable connecting PyongyangPyongyang
Pyongyang is the capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, commonly known as North Korea, and the largest city in the country. Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River and, according to preliminary results from the 2008 population census, has a population of 3,255,388. The city was...
with
Dandong
Dandong
Dandong , previously known as Andong and Antung, is a city in Liaoning Province, Northeast China. It lies on the border between China and North Korea, which is marked by the Yalu River, and is the largest border city in China. Also, to the southwest of the city, the river flows into Korea Bay...
, China via Sinuiju
Sinuiju
Sinŭiju is a city in North Korea, neighboring with Dandong City, China via international border and is the capital of North P'yŏngan Province...
.
North Korea's first Internet café
Internet cafe
An Internet café or cybercafé is a place which provides internet access to the public, usually for a fee. These businesses usually provide snacks and drinks, hence the café in the name...
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. In 2003 a joint venture called KCC Europe
Korea Computer Center
The Korea Computer Center is the leading North Korean government information technology research center. It was founded on October 24, 1990....
between businessman Jan Holterman in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
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.
KCC Europe
Korea Computer Center
The Korea Computer Center is the leading North Korean government information technology research center. It was founded on October 24, 1990....
administers the .kp
.kp
.kp is the Internet country code top-level domain of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea . It was created on September 24, 2007.-Usage:...
country code
Country code
Country codes are short alphabetic or numeric geographical codes developed to represent countries and dependent areas, for use in data processing and communications. Several different systems have been developed to do this. The best known of these is ISO 3166-1...
top-level domain
Top-level domain
A top-level domain is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains in lower levels, it is the last part of the domain name, that is, the last label of a...
(ccTLD) from Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, where many official North Korean websites are hosted including Naenara
Naenara
The Naenara, literally "my country" in Korean is the official web portal of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea . The portal's categories include politics, tourism, music, foreign trade, arts, press, IT Industries, history, and "Korea is One"....
.
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.