In one of the profound ironies of the dawning information age, it appears possible that North Korea has again attacked South Korea, but this time in cyberspace, rather than across the DMZ. The irony stems from the fact that South Korea has the world's highest levels of broadband internet usage is by far the most densely networked nation on earth, if measured in terms of fiber optic and wireless digital networks. The attacking nation, North Korea, ranks near last in the world on measures of internet access and usage. This is not surprising, considering its government takes great pains to insulate ordinary North Korean citizens from outside information. Television and radio sets are wired and periodically inspected to receive only permitted channels. Videocasettes, DVDs and mobile telephones have been prohibited and heavy penalties, up to and including death, have been exacted for their use. Only this year, it is reported that up to 40,000 North Koreans have subscribed to the new mobile system being built by Orascom Telecom.
According to sources in both Korea and the U.S., the denial of service attacks which disrupted some government and other high-profile websites in both South Korea and the United States, may well have originated in North Korea. In
an article on "North Korea's Powerful Hacker Army," the Chosun Ilbo notes that the North Korean regime is believed to emply from 500 to 1,000 trained hackers who attack from third countries, including China. The article suggests that the North Korean regime recruits hackers mainly from Pyongyang Automation University, also known as Mirim University, Kim Chaek University of Technology, or Pyongyang University of Computer Technology. The first of these schools belongs to the general staff of the People's Army, has about 700 students and about 500-600 faculty and staff. It graduates about 100 professionals every year. The North Korean army also maintains a bureau under the General Staff to manage hackers and develop software. Reportedly, data compiled by the U.S. Defense department shows that North Koreans are among the most frequent visitors to many of their Defense Department websites.
If the recent cyber attacks in South Korea and the U.S. indeed originated with North Korea, one can only imagine what sort of counter-attack the South and its allies are capable of, should they choose that option.
It had to happen. As reported in the local media, including the Korea Times, the PC Bang phenomenon has converged with green IT and South Korea's internet cafes will be going green. It was an idea whose time had come. The Ministry of Knowledge Economy is looking to spend about $33 million on power-efficient internet data centers. Within this, it plans for "green" PC rooms. By eliminating the individual PCs from a PC Bang and connecting all of the LCD displays and keyboards to a single server, substantial power savings can be realized. For example, a PC Bang with 50 computers that presently utilizes 54.7 megawatts of electricity per year could reduce its annual power bill by $4,300. The complementary plan for low-power internet data centers focuses on lowering the power requirements of these centers, which are the backbone of "cloud computing."
As reported by the Korea Times and other local media, a new OECD "Science, Technology and Industry Scoreboard" report shows that, as of 2007, South Korea was the world leader in exports of information and communications technologies. The nation exported a range of ICT products, including computers and cell phones, worth $97.4 billion in 2007, while importing technology goods valued at $54.1 billion. Furthermore, Korea's ICT trade surplus grew at an annual rate of 10 percent from 1996 through 2007. This record owes primarily to success of Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics in their exports of semiconductors, mobile phone handsets, televisions and other LCD products, and home appliances. However, despite the dominance of the two big chaebol groups, an industry expert noted that many of Korea's small and medium size industries also benefited from this export trend as they supplied critical electronic components here in Korea and for export. Think, for example of a 3G mobile handset. One of these today may contain 800 or more components. Until 1993 or later, Japanese firms dominated the market for handset components. However, when Korea chose to adopt the CDMA standard and became the first nation in the world to commercialize it, that picture started to change. It changed even more dramatically in favor of Korean exporters and components manufacturers when some large U.S. telecoms service providers announced they would use the CDMA standard.