The DPRK are ratching up the rhetoric against South Korea and specifically against hard-line president, Lee Myung Bak, on the first anniversary of his election.
As an anniversary present, the Space Cadets in the DPRK are preparing to send an improved (working?) Taepodong-2 into space.
Oh, and by-the-way, they have 180,000 spec ops forces (up from 120,000) ready to crash the party.
It’s intriging to compare this development with those of the Iranian satellite launch on Feb 2, 2009. Apparently, their hope is that UN sanctions won’t apply to missile launches that are declared to be part of a civilian space program.
Huawei 3G Phone
It looks like Orascom Telecom is using localized Korean versions of 3G phones from China’s Huawei. According to this article, the service has attracted 6,000 applications in 2 weeks. There is no mention of the approval process.
In addition to the expected calling charges, the handsets will run around $600USD.
“The price is quite high,” said Naguib Sawiris, Chairman of Orascom Telecom. “The government has put a big tax on handsets and it’s making it difficult for everyone to participate but we are having negotiations with the government to reduce that.”
There is no mention of the data services that will be available. Certainly, much of the appeal to go to an advanced 3G network is lost when there are no data services. But, apparently, there will be all the tools and goodies for officials to eavesdrop on calls - perhaps that’s the real appeal for this network from the government’s perspective.