The Economist, 9 Feb 2013: Escapee from North Korea "Jeon Geum Ju ... [watched] illegal South Korean and American TV dramas smuggled in from China and shared among her friends on memory sticks which they plugged into black-market computers, some made by South Korea’s Samsung. ... Last year an American government-backed report by InterMedia, a consultancy, welcomed the deluge pouring into the North through digital media and old-style broadcasting such as Voice of America and the Korean Broadcasting System. 'North Koreans can get more outside information…than ever before,' it said, 'and they are less fearful of sharing that information.' ... [A] severe crackdown is in force on TV dramas from South Korea... . Pressure is ... growing for other forms of engagement—especially ways around North Korea’s information blockade. Some North Korea-watchers welcomed the visit by Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, to the country in January as a step forward. The BBC World Service, too, is being urged to develop a Korean-language channel. In such endeavours, experts say, information on other ways of life is more valuable than political indoctrination. [Defector Lee Seongmin] believes that information should be as high a priority as food aid. 'It is only when people can tell the difference between truth and lies that their curiosity is stimulated,' he says. Curiosity may be what this obsessively secret regime most has to fear."

North Korea Tech, 30 Jan 2013, Martyn Williams: "Pyongyang Broadcasting Station (평양방송), North Korea’s Korean-language radio station aimed at nearby countries, is launching a website this week, according to announcements made Tuesday on domestic and international broadcasts. The new website will be called 'Grand National Unity' and will be available at www.gnu.rep.kp from February 1st, according to the announcements. That site currently holds a test page for the Apache web server. The site is the latest from the country carrying national news and propaganda to international audiences. While its adoption of the Internet for propagation of information has been slow, it has been steady and new sites have slowly been appearing. Other prominent sites include the Rodong Sinmun, the country’s main daily newspaper, and the official Korea Central News Agency. ... ... [Multilingual shortwave broadcaster] Voice of Korea currently has a web site. Pyongyang Broadcasting Station, with its overseas audience, is a natural second candidate for a home page."