Word: koreans
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...They understand IT is critical for their development," says Frederick Carriere, executive director of the New York-based Korea Society, who plays a pivotal role in bilateral programs with both halves of the Korean peninsula. This includes helping to broker a seven-year-long academic exchange between Syracuse University and Kim Chaek, which recently was able to open the country's first digital library, using open-source software...
...reversed his earlier decision and started upgrading the country's dilapidated communications infrastructure. Toward the end of last year Orascom Telecom, the Middle East's largest wireless firm, was awarded a contract to install a national cell system. The 25-year contract, in a joint venture with the North Korean state telecom entity, calls for a $400 million investment, which Orascom doubled down on by also investing in a bank and hotel project in Pyongyang. (View pictures of the rise of Kim Jong...
...Given a chance, though, North Koreans' native intelligence does flourish. Two years after first entering a team in the IBM-sponsored Computer Olympics (the International Collegiate Programming Contest), the North Koreans made it into the finals. "They are capable of handling very complicated software, and the results are extremely good," says Paul Tjia, a Dutchman whose GPI Consultancy has arranged for several European clients to outsource work to North Korean programmers. At Seoul's Unification Ministry, IT expert Lee Duk Haeng says Samsung and Korean Telecom are among a handful of South Korean firms currently using North Korean engineers...
...There are already hundreds of North Korean software engineers working in China, in border cities and elsewhere, according to Heejin Lee, a professor at Yonsei University, who has conducted fieldwork in the region. Most work as subcontractors for South Korean, Japanese or Chinese firms - sometimes in joint ventures - and Lee says there are numerous clandestine firms. The North Koreans earn high marks for their scientific and mathematical skills and come substantially cheaper than their Chinese counterparts - $300-$500 a month, one-third the cost of a Chinese engineer, or half the price of an Indian one, he says...
...question for foreigners is how actively to encourage North Korea's Internet integration. An initiative of the American Association for the Advancement of Science - also currently stalled because of the recent chill in bilateral relations - would pave the way for North Korean access to a wide swath of online university databases. That could provide critical assistance to Pyongyang's multiple development challenges, including growing enough food to feed its people; the country suffered a famine in the mid-'90s that claimed 2 million to 3 million lives and still suffers chronic malnutrition...