__NOTOC__
The Korea Computer Center (KCC) is the
North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...
n government
information technology
Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology syste ...
research center. It was founded on 24 October 1990.
KCC, which administered the
.kp
.kp is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). It was created on 24 September 2007.
History
The DPRK applied for the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) in 2004. ICANN, ...
country code
Country codes are short alphabetic or numeric geographical codes (geocodes) developed to represent countries and dependent areas, for use in data processing and communications. Several different systems have been developed to do this. The term ...
top-level domain
A top-level domain (TLD) is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet after the root domain. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains in ...
until 2011, employs more than 1,000 people.
[
]
KCC operates eight development and production centers, as well as eleven regional information centers. It runs the
KCC Information Technology College and its Information Technology Institute. The KCC has branch offices in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...
,
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
and the
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (Middle East, The Middle East). It is ...
. It has an interest in
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, whi ...
research, and started the development of the
Red Star OS distribution localised for North Korea.
KCC is a part of the political establishment and not entirely an IT company ''per se''. Its technological state and general modernity are seen as lagging well behind the rest of the world, even with the general
zeitgeist
In 18th- and 19th-century German philosophy, a ''Zeitgeist'' () ("spirit of the age") is an invisible agent, force or Daemon dominating the characteristics of a given epoch in world history.
Now, the term is usually associated with Georg W. ...
in
North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...
. For example, the
.kp
.kp is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). It was created on 24 September 2007.
History
The DPRK applied for the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) in 2004. ICANN, ...
ccTLD
A country code top-level domain (ccTLD) is an Internet top-level domain generally used or reserved for a country, sovereign state, or dependent territory identified with a country code. All ASCII ccTLD identifiers are two letters long, and all ...
was registered in 2007, but KCC did not manage to get a working registry for three years, despite the support of a European company. KCC has still not implemented a working
ccTLD
A country code top-level domain (ccTLD) is an Internet top-level domain generally used or reserved for a country, sovereign state, or dependent territory identified with a country code. All ASCII ccTLD identifiers are two letters long, and all ...
infrastructure, something the
North Korean government
In the North Korean government, the Cabinet is the administrative and executive body. The North Korean government consists of three branches: administrative, legislative, and judicial. However, they are not independent of each other, but al ...
has had as a goal for several years.
While KCC mainly works on projects within North Korea, it has since 2001 served clients in
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
,
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
,
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...
, and the
Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
. It operates
Naenara
Naenara () is the official web portal of the North Korean government. It was the first website in North Korea, and was created in 1996. The portal's categories include politics, tourism, music, foreign trade, arts, press, information technology ...
, North Korea's official web portal.
Nosotek
Nosotek () is the first Western-invested IT joint venture company in North Korea.
Nosotek is known for developing computer games for various platforms, such as iPhone, j2me and Wii. They claimed to have 50+ programmers on the team jointly manage ...
is another North Korean IT venture company that develops computer games; two of them were published by
News Corporation
News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp.), also variously known as News Corporation Limited, was an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in New ...
. Another such company is the
Pyongyang Information Center.
In early 2015, the KCC was reorganized, with all functions not related to the development of Red Star OS being transferred to other entities.
Products
* "Sam heug"
search engine
A search engine is a software system designed to carry out web searches. They search the World Wide Web in a systematic way for particular information specified in a textual web search query. The search results are generally presented in a ...
* "
Naenara
Naenara () is the official web portal of the North Korean government. It was the first website in North Korea, and was created in 1996. The portal's categories include politics, tourism, music, foreign trade, arts, press, information technology ...
" web browser
* "Chosun Jang-Gi", a computer game
*
Kwangmyong, North Korea's closed national intranet
* "
Chosun Ryo-Li", a food-related website
* "Hana", a Korean language
input method editor
An input method (or input method editor, commonly abbreviated IME) is an operating system component or program that enables users to generate characters not natively available on their input devices by using sequences of characters (or mouse o ...
* "Koryo", English-Korean/Korean-English translation software using an
electronic pen
Digital paper, also known as interactive paper, is patterned paper used in conjunction with a digital pen to create handwritten digital documents. The printed dot pattern uniquely identifies the position coordinates on the paper. The digital pen ...
* "Nunbora", a Korean language voice recognition software
* "Pulgunbyol" (
Red Star OS), a Linux distribution
* "Cyber Friend", a video conference system
* "Cyber Star", an electronic education system
* "SilverStar Paduk", a
Go computer game
* "HMS Player", a media player
*
Samjiyon
Samjiyŏn is a city in Ryanggang Province, North Korea. It takes its name from three lakes in the city, which are collectively known as the Samjiyŏn. Samjiyŏn is situated near Mount Paektu, and tour groups fly to the city's airport to see th ...
tablet
Tablet may refer to:
Medicine
* Tablet (pharmacy), a mixture of pharmacological substances pressed into a small cake or bar, colloquially called a "pill"
Computing
* Tablet computer, a mobile computer that is primarily operated by touching the ...
Samjiyon Android tablet debuts at Pyongyang trade fair
''North Korea Tech'', 28 Sept 2012. Retrieved Nov 2012.
See also
* Internet in North Korea
Internet access is available in North Korea, but is only permitted with special authorization. It is primarily used for government purposes, and also by foreigners. The country has some broadband infrastructure, including fiber optic links betw ...
* Economy of North Korea
The economy of North Korea is a centrally planned economy, following '' Juche'', where the role of market allocation schemes is limited, although increasing. , North Korea continues its basic adherence to a centralized command economy. With a ...
References
External links
Korea Computer Centre
{{authority control
Government agencies of North Korea
Information technology in North Korea
Computer science institutes
Research institutes in North Korea
1990 establishments in North Korea
Information technology research institutes
Computer companies of North Korea