Word: koreas
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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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...
...would be nice to think that a new high-tech day is dawning over North Korea, but that would be a mistake," argues David J. Smith, chief operating officer and director of the North Korea Project at the National Institute for Public Policy, a U.S. foreign policy think tank. "North Korea's high-tech ventures will fail to save its economy without a systemic overhaul, of which the regime is incapable...
...Experts in South Korea, which is far more advanced, are skeptical. Targeting software development is a good way to earn foreign exchange quickly, agrees Dr. Kim Yoo Hyang, an expert on DPRK IT policy at South Korea's National Assembly research service. But she insists "it is safe to say North Korea's IT-sector development has not moved beyond its incipient stage...
...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...
...North Korea's pronounced track record of mischief and crime could make a greater Internet presence a mixed blessing. Some observers worry that the desperately poor country might be tempted to try its hand at any number of cybercrime ventures. North Korea already has a small (100 personnel) cyberwarfare unit trying to hack into U.S. and South Korean military networks, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported in early May. The report came a day after Seoul's Defense Ministry said it had signed an accord with the Pentagon to strengthen its cooperation in fighting against cyberthreats...