DPRK’s Science Center and the Affiliated Research Institution

The central administrative organization

The central administration of the North Korea Science Center consists of three chambers, six departments, 20 bureaus, and one committee with 10 branch institutes and 41 affiliated research institutions. As shown in Figure 1, the policies related to science technologies are made within the Science Chamber while the Bureau of Science Planning makes plans for scientific research and the Bureau of Biological Science Guidance and Electric Machinery Science Guidance, etc., provide all technological support to the industries.
Although the specific number of researchers is still unknown, a North Korean government official once mentioned, in his speech "On New Turning Point of Science Research Undertaking," that thousands of hard-working scientists are contributing to research projects at the Science Center and that a sizeable proportion of them are in their 40s and 50s. There are a few notes to be made about the central administration of the Science Center in comparison to its predecessor prior to the organization's consolidation with the Science Technology Committee in 1998.
Before the consolidation, the administrative tasks were shared among the Science Technology Guidance Department; Natural Science Guidance Department; Science Exchange Department; Bureau of Data Planning; Science Technology Management Training Institute; Science Equipment Production Department; National Academic Development Committee; Integrated Workshop; and Data House, etc. And the merger consequently enhanced the role of the Science Chamber, Administration Supervision Department, and the Bureau of Science Planning in dealing with administration issues and planning, whereas other agencies such as the Bureau of External Science Supervision and Trade Management were granted bigger authority to evaluate and determine the ranks of research executives.
With heightened technical supervisory rights, the Technology Guidance Department concentrates on North Korea's major industries - namely, biology, electric machinery, metal extraction, chemical and light industry and the like - which draw an interesting contrast against China where the national science organization is focused on basic research and state-of-art technologies.
Seemingly, the reason for such disparity lies in the fact that the North Korean Science Center is devoted to improving technological support that can be immediately applied to production fields; in other words, while Chinese science institutions operate on academic departments, North Korea puts emphasis on practical technologies.

Missile technology, the epitome of North Korea's science technology

The affiliated research institutions
North Korean society's infamous exclusiveness and frequent restructuring and reform of national organizations pose extreme difficulty for outsiders to grasp an accurate picture of the country's current state. The data lately released by the Ministry of National Unification (see Figure 2), however, gives us a glimpse into the structure of the North Korea Science Center.
North Korea's research institutions went through a major change in late '80s when many new high-tech research institutions were established. In early 1990s, there were eight science-related departments, each in charge of biology, railway transport, machinery, construction, electric automation, metals, coal, and pharmaceutics and medical equipment; three local branches in Gangseo, Hamheung, and Songrim; and about 29 affiliated research institutions including those for astronomy and meteorology. However, in 1994, the government set up the Science Center into which all research organizations were integrated, and consequently left eight branch offices and one local branch as well as four research institutions for marine science, oriental medicine, medical science, and agricultural science. The institutions that studied traditional technologies such as machinery, metal, and pharmaceutics were separated as independent organizations before the cellular and genetic engineering research institution was newly built.
It was September 1998 when the National Science Center was restructured to its current form (see Figure 2). In addition to the number of departments and branches, several other changes were made and the marine science research institution remained while the other three institutions were brought back into the previous position.

The Central Agency for Science, Technology, and Information
Apart from the Science Center, the North Korean government founded the Central Agency for Science, Technology, and Information to provide, on its website, the latest science and technology news and introduce science-related products that are widely sold in many companies and stores across the country.
In addition, the website allows users to read original text of various books published by the agency as well as to order some science and technology magazines from abroad. Recently, the agency embraced more user-friendly services such as 'focused update service' that keeps the subscribers updated with the latest news of chosen fields; 'search service'; 'translation service'; and 'Q&A service' to consult questions relating to new technologies - and users can now even attend cyber lectures on subjects like computer and foreign languages through the internet.
Furthermore, the new services range from providing information on recent achievements of state-of-the-art agricultural science technology to data on the latest patented technologies and 'customized program development service' through which organizations and companies can ask for programming of task-related applications. Latest news reports that "recently, the number of users for the database of the Central Agency for Science, Technology, and Information is rapidly increasing," and that "the agency is also making efforts to expand its user base with various promotion activities."

Information Technology Industry

North Korea's major information and communications institution. If the Chosun Computer Centre (KCC) is called the centerpiece of North Korea's IT R&D, Pyongyang Information Centre (PIC) is the mecca of their software development. The PIC, founded on July 15, 1986, was jointly funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Jochongnyeon (the pro-Pyongyang federation of Korean residents in Japan). It is situated in Kyong-Heung dong near the Botong River in Pyongyang. The PIC was created as the Pyongyang Program Development Company and changed its name to Pyongyang Electronic Calculator Operator in October of 1988 and then again to Pyongyang Information Centre (PIC) in July of 1991. As of now, the best and the brightest of North Korea's IT talent is developing various kinds of programs and devices at the PIC: nearly 300 IT professionals who graduated from the North's most prestigious universities such as Kim Il-sung University, Kim Chaek University of Technology and Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST), are on the payroll of the PIC. On the overseas front, the PIC has its branches in China, Japan and Singapore, where PIC IT experts are working on software development, and has teamed up with foreign companies to jointly develop software programs and expedite technology transfers. The PIC, North Korea's major software developer, has been at the vanguard of these following areas: language information processing, machinery translation, document editing, global IMEs (Input Message Editor), computer-aided design (CAD), networks, database systems, fonts, multimedia, dynamic images, etc. For instance, the PIC's database development task-force consists of about 40 IT experts who are all working on the development of information management systems for production lines, companies and other institutions. The PIC's publishing group has been engaged in various R&D projects from the development of Chang-Deok, a PC word processor, to DTP (desk top publishing) systems for Mac computers. Last but not least, the PIC's application software group is keen on CAD, virtual reality and the development of project management devices. The PIC has been developing a plethora of software products: embedded software, CAD, image processing, Korean-language information processing and systems, network management systems, multimedia dynamic images, etc. The PIC's 3D CAD has been widely employed by North Korean and foreign architectural design companies and more sophisticated versions of it are coming out. What's more, the PIC is ramping up its joint R&D efforts with overseas IT developers with a focus on the development of diverse image processing programs. Korean-language information processing and systems are about developing the technologies for character recognition, voice recognition, natural language processing and primary retrieval while the development of network management systems includes fire walls, security solutions, encryption, e-commerce, IC cards, instant messenger programs, mobile game programs, etc. They are also working on the development of multimedia and dynamic images: technologies for producing 3D materials, 2D cartoon production and the technology for adding accompaniments to images are being developed. The PIC's font development team has developed 300 Korean fonts and a myriad of calligraphic styles for imported mobile phones and dot fonts for PDAs. The PIC has thus far scaled up its IT exchanges with overseas information and technology companies as well as R&D institutions. A case in point is the North-South joint venture, HANA Program Center, which is located in Dandong-si in Liaoning, China and was jointly invested in May of 2001 by the PIC and North-South HANA Biz, a subsidiary of South Korea's Dasan Network. Another showpiece of the PIC's effort for joint R&D is the software development for fonts and Chinese character recognition in collaboration with Soltworks (an e-publishing software developer). On top of that, the PIC's IT exchanges with overseas institutions have been on the rise. As such, inter-Korean cooperation projects will serve as the driving force behind the PIC's IT exchanges with South Korea. To that end, non-military sanctions imposed on Pyongyang should be eased, such as the Wassenaar Arrangement (a multilateral export control regime (MECR) with 40 participating states) should be eased to move US - North Korea relations forward and the US's EAR (Export Administration Regulation) on the North should be scaled back. Above all, IT-initiated unification of the two Koreas should be preceded by pragmatic dialogues with the North and North Korea's efforts for reaching out to other nations. As of now, the North needs to draw up a future blueprint to embark on phased cooperation with the S. Korean government and companies in a bid to open its doors to the international community.

PIC-created Software Programs program description: details

Chang-Deok: A software program for document editing and e-publishing.
It works with various languages: Korean, English, Japanese, Russian, etc.
Dangun: A word processor that supports Korean, Japanese and Chinese.
Over 200 calligraphic styles of Korean.
It won the most esteemed award at the 11th National Software Program Competition
Yongma : A spreadsheet calculation program for Windows
Electronic Publishing System: An electronic publishing system for Korean, English, Japanese and Chinese
Recognition: Automatic recognition program (the rate of recognition 97%)
Gohyang: A database management system (DBMS)
Dul: A two-dimensional computer aided design (CAD) system
San-Ak A three-dimensional computer aided design (CAD) system
Dam-Jing: A machinery translation program for Korean and Japanese.
It has 200,000 words in its memory. A 300 Kbite Korean text can be translated into Japanese in just three minutes. It costs roughly US $20 per unit.
Body Type and Diet: A health management system
Typing School: A fun-oriented, learn-to-type program (Korean and English) designed to teach childrenhow to type faster on keyboards
Samcheon-ri: A Choson atlas program
Pyongyang: multimedia program designed for Pyongyang tours
Chosen's History and Customs: A multimedia program

Korea Computer Center - The Core of North Korea's IT Strategy

Korea Computer Center (KCC) is situated in the Mangyongdae District of Pyongyang, Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The computer center was established on October 24, 1990 as a subsidiary company of the Software Industry General Bureau. It is comprised of 10 R&D centers and 11 regional information centers. As North Korea's producer of websites home and abroad, KCC operates Naenara Information Center and a quality management center. It produces a variety of software and hardware products, employing more than 1,200 workers. Over 800 workers are employed as R&D staff and 100 of them are doctorate holders. KCC has branch offices in Germany, China, and Syria and actively engages in marketing activities as well as technological joint ventures and exchange programs with North Korea's famous software companies and scientific research institutions. Being one of the most open places in North Korea, KCC recently introduced the ISO9001 quality management system. Evaluated to be a core organization responsible for North Korea's information industry and cyber welfare, KCC was established with the support of Jochongryeon, the pro-Pyeongyang federation of Korean residents in Japan. There are ten R&D centers, an information technology university, a doctoral academy and a training school under the three bureaus of development, international business, and administration. Under the research center branch, there are research departments for system programs, multi-media, business management programs, computer operations, equipment, and application programs. Also, there is a university branch of Kim Chaek Industrial University. It is said that North Korea's founder Kim Il-Sung and his son Kim Jung-Il attended the opening ceremony of KCC and personally gave advice to the cooperation. Presently, the average researcher at the research institute is in their 30s. Top-class computer experts who have graduated from Kim Il Sung University, Kim Chaek Industrial University and Pyeong Sung College of Science are leading the center and accelerating the development of software, while taking over the roles of not only development and dissemination of software programs, but also development of human resources. KCC has set up an information technology college at Kim Chaek Industrial University for the purpose of educating high school graduates in becoming professional IT technicians. Having established a doctoral academy for the education of degree holders and a training school for re-education of technicians and experts with new IT technologies, KCC focuses on constructing a pool of highly capable and talented men. If the research center becomes dependent on the national economy when North Korea's overall economic situation is stagnant, it may be difficult for it to grow independently, but KCC is turning the software industry into a leading part of the national economy by expanding its status and influence. It has become a profit creating model as it develops and supplies software programs to companies and factories with its own strategies and an independent budget. KCC's administration is diversified and is made up of six administrative departments in the areas of planning & production, financing, marketing, strategic research, legal affairs, and other affairs. Strategy planning and management operations are carried out systematically by awarding power to the departments themselves and profits are sought by adopting a 'marketing' concept. There are ten R&D service units for operational systems, information security, language processing, medical information technology, quality management, network communication, administration processing, control system, multimedia, and information services. Intensive R&D activities are performed within each service unit. The application program development group is divided into health information technology and language processing subgroups, in addition network communication and information service units are established separately and are expanding their operations. All these measures reflect the social trend of 'computerizing the country'. The Network Communication Program Center develops software programs used in telecommunication equipment and provides IT network solutions. The Information Service Center serves as a network information center which designs and operates the central computer network and websites. All the software programs developed by KCC are based on Linux, capitalizing on the advantages of an open source and avoiding the royalty burden of using Microsoft. Such Linux based programs, especially the embedded Linux, are on the rise globally in the development of commercial software programs. KCC developed the Korean language input program 'Naenara', the game 'go' program 'Ryugyeong' and the human constitution classifier 'Geumbitmal,' which are well known even in South Korea. On top of these, KCC also developed 'Koryo Pen', a multi-language handwriting reader, software programs for character and speech recognition, a translator and an electronic dictionary in addition to the Korean Linux 'Red Star' developed for the general public. There are also 'practical' software programs that can be used at work sites, such as a hospital management system, debt and credit management program, a tax management system, and paper mill production process control system. KCC also developed cutting-edge security programs such as 'Cheongsong', a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) system, and an automatic fingerprint search system. As for multi-media contents, KCC placed the video file of an 'Arirang' performance into a database. The goal of KCC is to be reborn as a world-renowned incubator of Linux research. Aiming to make an entry into the world software market, KCC is carrying out projects such as Class B1 Secure-Linux OS, real-time Linux Kernel, and Mobile DBMS. These projects are undertaken with much interest so as to catch up with the world trend. If North Korea can be technologically competitive with the help of South Korea by opening its doors, the ripple effects will be enormous. Such a change of KCC is not irrelevant to the development of South Korea's IT industry. What does the future hold for KCC, as it has immersed itself into a sea of information and telecommunications? I dream the day when South and North Korea leap forward and become an IT power house in the not too distant future.

The International Centre for Scientific and Technological Information (ICSTI) is an intergovernmental organization established on February 27, 1969.

ICSTI aims at establishing a scientific and technological information system for exchange of scientific and technological information between its member nations, transfer of technology, training of personnel and promotion of work among other international organizations.

In close contact with scientific and technological information agencies of the member nations the centre is playing a leading role in exchanging scientific and technological information. It is raising its profile by bolstering up exchange and cooperation with the international organizations that have joined it including the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the International Atomic energy agency (IAEA).

It sponsors international meetings and workshops including seminar on science and technology and conference on science, technology and commerce every year and provides information service.

Twenty-one countries have acceded to the centre as of May 2007 and thirty organizations have become its members.

The Central Scientific Technology Information Agency (CSTIA) of DPRK has permanent representative in it.

After its entry, the agency sent its delegation to the session of the delegate committee which was held twice a year until 1990 and once a year from 1991. In recent years it has been strengthening its activities in close contact with the centre.

At the request of ICSTI, it established a website in the centre in collaboration with experts between February and April 2006. As a result, the environment for work with the centre, its member nations and organizations has been improved.

Its activities were highly appreciated at the 57th session of the delegate committee held in Krakow, Poland in May 2006 and the 58th session in Vienna, Austria in May 2007. In particular, the director of ICSTI expressed satisfaction over smooth progress in exchange and cooperation with the CSTIA.

Now CSTIA has signed the plan of co-developing seven-language e-dictionary and conducted trial production. Now it is pushing ahead with the effort to enter native languages of the member nations into the e-dictionary and mass produce it.

Exchange and cooperation between CSTIA and ICSTI will provide more opportunities to activate the international efforts to exchange scientific and technological information.

North Korea’s Artificial Intelligence Go Software The World Best: Eunbyol

Eunbyul 2010 is a Go game, or baduk in Korean, software program developed by North Korea and played in North and South Korea

Eunbyul 2010 is a "Go" game, or commonly known as baduk in Korean; a software program developed by North Korea and played in North and South Korea. Winner of the third Computer Go Competition UED Cup in 2009, defeating so many outstanding programs from all over the world, Eunbyul 2010 is maintaining 3-dan at cyberoro.com and also ranks number one in sales in Japanese computer Go program market.

Go was invented by Chinese emperor Yao around 2300 BC, and has been widely played in the three countries in Far East: Korea, Japan, and China. In North Korea, the game was previously considered 'the bourgeoisie game,' thus a taboo; however since the 1990's, the government has promoted Go as a traditional game that dates back to the Three States era(Koguryo Kingdom Dynasty); in addition it highlights the game as a brain exerciser that helps children develop their intelligence and old people keep their brains from aging. North Korea classifies Go - also called brain combat or brain fight in the country- as a type of martial arts just like Taekwondo or Ssireum, the Korean wrestling. North Korea's Go was controlled by Chosun Sports Association, but under the command from Kim Jeong-il in 1990s; it was transferred to Chosun Martial Arts Federation that haf better training environment, and subsequently categorized as public sport; now Taekwondo Commission is in charge of the game. Cho Daewon, 22 and MunYoungsam, 33, both amateur 7-dan, are noted as the top players in the country.

The estimated number of Go players in North Korea was around 10,000 in 1994, and is currently over 30,000. North Korean government encourages children to play Go as they believe the game has a significant effect on improving many brain activities such as concentration, observation, memory, imagination, and structure perception. Go classes are organized at kindergarten and the government tries to promote the game by holding various Go competitions for children.

Along with their passion for the game, North Korea is also regarded as one of the world's best developer of computer Go game. Since early 1990s, the university computer development group composed of Kim Ilseong University, Kim Chek Engineering College, etc. - has developed computer Go programs. In 1995, Eunbyul Computer Technology Trade Center which is now called Korea Computer Center (KCC) focused on making software programs for Go, chess, Janggi and the like. The Go software 'Eunbyul 2010 (see the picture above)'-http://www.i-silverstar.com - was imported into South Korea and is now available to the public consumers.

Eunbyul 2010 is the latest version of Eunbyul 2006, which was released in 2006 drawing attention to the industry. It integrated Monte Carlo Method into the algorithm of the original 2006 version, substantially improving the level of performance. While Eunbyul 2006 was rated level 6 according to Korea Baduk Association's system, its 2010 counterpart attained 2-dan after the battles with random user at Cyber Oro, the internet Go match website. The user won 54 and lost 46games - 31 victories and 25 defeats in 1-dan battles and 23 victories and 21 defeats in 2-dan battles -hence, with 54 percent of winning rate.
The software also won the International Computer Go Tournament held last year in Japan, sweeping all the matches and, thus, proving to be the best of its kind in the world. There are two types of engines in Go programs. Tree search system, in theory, takes more than 361 (factorial) searches for one match because it has to create a move by move searching tool to explore every path. There is Monte Carlo method engine, which randomly selects one of the undefeated moves after proceeding hundreds of thousands of simulated battles to the end. Despite the relatively higher performance (on amateur beginner's levels), this method was difficult to be adopted for commercial use because it required computation by either supercomputer or tens of CPUs from parallel wired computers.

Baduk master matches against AI baduk master, Eunbyul

North and South Korea agreed to develop a whole new level of Go program engine that contains tactical data, which narrows down the potential moves to only a few, so as to make the next move in a simpler way. They also aim to make a program with optimal performance that is light and fast enough to be installed in a mobile device. South Korea provides an expert-levelalgorithm design whereas North Korean developers will take charge of creating a program based on the theory and basic algorithm. This new expert-level Go engine is already completed, and its automatic evaluator and situation-determination module are currently being supplied to a popular Korean Go website. Further use is currently under negotiation. One engineer who specialized in expert-level Go engine and gave up after spending more than 10 years on developing the engine once contended that "it is beyond human capability to develop an amateur-expert level of Go engine." However, the recent success can be largely contributed to the thoughtful collaboration between South and North Korea: i.e., the North Korean engineers spent more than a decade focused and devoted to Go engine development, and South Korea's also has well-known competence in Go game. The incredible synergy was all thanks to the socialist system of North Korea where the engineers could stick to the Go engine development project for nearly 20 years regardless of its profitability; and also the capitalist South fostered the best Go players with its wealth and the professional Go player system. For those reasons, North Korea could have developed Eunbyul 2010, the best artificial intelligence Go program in the world.

North Korea’s Mobile Communications Service

The Launch of “Koryolink” the North’ 3G Mobile Communications Service

In the past four years, mobilephones have been off limits to the general public in North Korea. With the resumption of 3G mobile services, mobile phones are now back on the market. In 2002, North Korea created the Northeast Asia Telephone and Telecommunications Co. (NEAT&T) in cooperation with the Thai company, Loxley. They launched mobile communications services which were available only in the North and utilized Europe's GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) and integrated-circuit (IC) chips. However, since the 2004 the explosion at Yongcheon station, the North Korean regime eliminated all of the mobile communications devices that were in service at the time. Four years later, the North's Korea Post and Telecommuni-cations Company and Egypt's Orascom Telecom jointly held the Inauguration Ceremony for a 3G Communication Service on December 15th of 2008 in Pyongyang to kick-start the mobile communications services program. The Orascom Group which is partnering with the North in providing the service is a household name in Egypt and considered among the largest network operators in the Arab world. The Orascom Group was established in 1950 and now has four affiliates engaged in mobile communications, construction, hotels, real estate and IT. The payments by Orascom Telecom, which has invested heavily in the North Korean mobile telephony and construction industries on projects which include the construction of the Ryugyong Hotel (a 105-floor skyscraper under construction in Pyongyang), have been guaranteed by Switzerland's UBS Bank. Judging from Orascom Telecom's business track record in the North Korean mobile communications industry, Orascom Telecom has consistently and painstakingly worked to gain control over the mobile communications networks. In January of 2008, just six months after Korea Post and Telecommunications Company and Orascom Telecom signed their cooperation agreement, the construction arm of Orascom Group announced that it would buy a stake in North Korea's Sanwoon Cement, located near Pyongyang. Allegedly, Orascom's investment amounted to approximately US$115 million, the biggest private investments made in North Korea to date. Orascom Telecom and the Korea Post and Telecommunications Company set up a joint venture called "CHEO Technology", which was invested jointly by Orascom Telecom and Korea Post and Telecommunications Company at a 75:25 ratio. Orascom Telecom, a network operator that has usually done business in the Middle East and Africa, said it would sink nearly US$ 4 million into building a 3G (WCDMA) network in North Korea. Back in 2008, North Korean mobile operator Koryolink entered the mobile communications business to serve 126,000 subscribers, but demand far exceeded the company's expectations.

Therefore, Koryolink plans to secure enough mobile phone circuits so as to serve all the people who wish to use mobile communications services. In addition, the Choson Sinbo, a newspaper based in Japan, reported that the number of North Korean mobile subscribers would break the 600,000 mark by the end of this year. That means just one year and four months after 3G mobile carrier Koryolink started its business in December of 2008, the number of mobile subscribers topped 120,000 as of April of this year. The mobile communications bureau of the Chosen Post said, "In 2009, base stations were put up throughout Pyongyang and communications networks have been complemented. And major highways leading to Pyongyang (e.g. Pyongyang- Hyangsan, Pyongyang-Nampo highways), major railways sections, and each province have been equipped with communications networks. "In the future, more than half of the counties and towns will have networks with the rest scheduled to be equipped within this year" said the Chosen Post. North Korea is planning to expand mobile connectivity to the entire nation by 2012. Those who wish to use 3G services can go to mobile service centers called "Bongsaso", pick up an application form and submit it with a payment (the price of the mobile phone plus a 50 euro subscription fee). The prices of terminals range from 110 euro to 240 euro and some mobile devices have built-in cameras. The basic mobile device is supplied by China's Huawei Technologies.
In the future, the 3G mobile communications service will go beyond simple voice calls: Multimedia services such as TV phones and high-volume, high-speed communications will be made possible. The subscription fees, call charges and the prices of mobile phones will go down. On the hardware front, North Korea aims to develop and manufacture its own hand-held mobile phones, but at the moment, mobile phones will be imported from foreign nations, primarily from China. For now, a new production line is planned to be built by a joint venture company, which was formed by foreign capital and the Chosen Post, to assemble imported parts into finished goods. North Korea said it would set up a nation-wide mobile communications system in order to modernize its communication system. Building an upgraded mobile communication system has been of great interest to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, so this project is expected to gain momentum quickly. According to South Korean mobile carriers and South Korea's Korea Communications Commission (KCC), only senior government figures are using mobile phones right now in the North. Yet the general public will soon get their hands on mobile devices. As for the North Korean mobile communications industry, getting foreign investors can be a problem. But the real issue lies with North Korea's poor electricity grids, which are so insufficient that anticipated high electricity demand from maintaining network facilities and charging mobile phones may not be met. Regardless, it is indeed very encouraging that the North offers 3G mobile communication services to the public. I believe that the commercialization of 3G mobile communication services would serve as a stepping stone to North Korea's gradual reform and market opening, which are deemed to be inevitable in the end. The Launch ceremony of the 3G mobile communications service