North Korea 10 years late with software system

SEOUL, S.KOREA: Reclusive North Korea has developed its own computer software operating system that is heavy on security, greatly influenced by Microsoft and about 10 years out of date.

North Korea is one of the world's most isolated states that tries to cut off the flow of information from the outside world. It teaches students about the Internet by showing them photocopied papers of computer monitors.

The Korean language system whose name translates as "Red Star" is about as advanced as systems that came out a decade ago and is likely not coming to computers in the outside world anytime soon, a South Korean government think tank said in a report obtained on Tuesday.

"Due to few applicable programmes available, Red Star will not even be easily distributed in North Korea," the Science and Technology Policy Institute said after obtaining the software and running a detailed analysis.

"North Korea has created a computer operating system where it can control its own information security."

The few North Korean civilians who can access the Internet only see a few sites that have been approved by state censors.

Pyongyang also has launched a cyber war unit that targets computer sites in South Korea, the United States and other places that has become a growing concern for regional powers, intelligence officials have said.

Red Star uses the Korean folk song "Arirang", popular on both sides of the peninsula, as its start-up music and numbers years using its its "juche" (self-reliance) calendar, which starts counting from the birth of state founder Kim Il-sung.

The Linux-based Red Star system borrows heavily from early versions of Microsoft and has knock-off copies of the computer giant's word processing, spread sheet and power point programmes, the report said.

It also runs numerous security programmes designed to let authorities keep tabs on what North Korean computer users have been up to that also prevent outsiders from getting in.