Understanding North Korea Today

Greetings from the Australian National University in Canberra where Dr Emma Campbell, Korea Institute Postdoctoral Fellow of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre is speaking on "Inside the hermit kingdom - a tour of North Korea", based on a recent visit. She suggested looking at individual stories to see how history changes individuals and how individuals shape history. She gave the examples of Shin Dong-hyuk, who escapes a  North Korean prison camp, as described in "Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West" by Blaine Harden (Penguin Books, 2013). She then described visiting a school day at a North Korean town far from the capital, which she described as reassuringly normal. This contrasted with the much more regimented mass performances in Pyongyang. She argues that the west is mislead by North Korean propaganda, which the citizens themselves don't take a lot of notice of. Dr Campbell estimated that chronic malnutrition had stunted the growth of teenage children she saw at six years. But the message was not all negative, as she pointed out that there are vibrant private markets supplementing government rations.

Dr Campbell pointed out that the western sanctions against North Korea provides a propaganda weapon for the regime, which can blame hardships on the west. She recommended reading of the Pyongyang Project. She argued that North Korea is being driven to a closer relationship with China and so may follow a Chinese model, which may not be in the interests of the west. She ended by playing a clip of the Moranbong Band plays Rocky in North Korea.

The question which this excellent presentation leaves is if North Korea can escape from its history. One way might be through collapse as happened to the Soviet Union, however the risks from this would be very high. Another option would be the introduction of a market economy, while retaining central party control, as in China. Perhaps after a period of prosperity, North Korea might accept their nuclear facilities being supervised by Chinese nationals under a United Nations mandate.

Dr Emma Campbell recently returned from a 6 day visit to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea where she travelled through the Northeast of the country. Her itinerary included the cities of Rajin-Sonbong, Chongjin, Kyongsong and the Chilbosan region. In this lecture, Dr Campbell will share images and experiences from her recent trip. She will explore issues around travelling to North Korea by answering questions such as: can anything be gained from such restricted and monitored travel? Does travel to a country like North Korea help break down barriers between outsiders and the Korean people or does it give sustenance to the regime? And can anything witnessed in North Korea be considered ‘real’ or believable? Based on her long engagement with the Korean peninsula that began with a trip to the DPRK in 1997 during the country’s devastating famine, Dr Campbell argues that much can be gained by informed travellers who visit the DPRK. Despite the barriers presented by the controlled nature of tours, she contends that substantial insights that can be gained into normal life in the North. In this lecture, Dr Campbell will share some of these insights with the audience and suggest how such knowledge should shape the policy of Australia and the wider international community in their efforts to bring about peace on the Korean peninsula.

Broadband in Korea

Gwang Jae Kim from Hanyang Cyber University talked at "Converging on an NBN Future" in Canberra on "Reflections on Broadband Policies in South Korea". She pointed out that while Korea has extensive broadband installed there is still much to do. See her: "Consumer adoption in digital multimedia broadcasting: examining socio-cultural and economic determinants":

This study aims to develop the persuasive theory model in explaining the adoption of digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB). DMB services were unveiled in Korea on December 1, 2005, marking the beginning of a full-fledged mobile TV era for the country. I stablished hypothesis under the objectives of study such as which factors can explain customers' adoption most properly and how it can be structured based on expanded technology acceptance model (ETAM). The results are threefold. First, the applicability of technology acceptance model (TAM) based on research of Davis (1989), was revealed to be supported. Second, two factors, socio-cultural influence (SCI) and network externalities, were derived as the external factors that can expand TAM in explaining adoption of DMB. Finally, results support use of the extended TAM as an explainer in the context of DMB adoption as information technology (IT).

From: Gwang Jae Kim. 2011. Consumer adoption in digital multimedia broadcasting: examining socio-cultural and economic determinants. Int. J. Inf. Technol. Manage. 10, 1 (December 2011), 80-93. DOI=10.1504/IJITM.2011.037764 http://dx.doi.org/10.1504/IJITM.2011.037764

South Korean Cyber City

Cisco issued a media release about the South Korean city of Incheon, using its technology in their cyber-city development: "Incheon Nam-Gu Office Collaborates with Cisco to Realize ‘Smart Nam-Gu' Vision" (Cisco 14 October 2011). But it is diffiult to find out exactly what is proposed. There are medai reports about a U-City, or "ubiquitous city"(Incheon to House World’s Largest Ubiquitous City, Do Je-hae, Korea Times, 12 September 2011). The Korean Tourism Organsation refers to " Tomorrow City" at Songdo, but this appears to be a single six-story building, with facilities relabeled to have the prefix "U": U-Transit Center, U-City Vision Center, U-Mall, and U-Square. The website for "Tomorrow City" (tomorrowcity.or.kr) does not appear to be working. The Incheon City Government refers to a green city, but with few details. There seems noting on the scale of Malaysia's Cyberjaya.

Australia has its own attempt at a high tech city with the Multi-Function Polis (MFP), a Japanese 1980s proposal for a city of the future to concentrate on IT, education and environmental management. What resulted was a more modest suburb in Adelaide and a renamed technology park.

Korean Green ICT Action Plan 2012

The Korean government's Ministry of Public Information and Security issued a "Green ICT Action Plan 2012" (translation) 15 January 2009. This aims for a 10% reduction of carbon emissions by 2012. Available in Korean are:

• 090116(정보자원정책과)참고-녹색정보화추진계획.hwp 090,116 (policy and resources) Note - Green information technology plan. Hwp
• 090116(정보자원정책과)녹색정보화 추진계획.hwp 090,116 (policy and resources) Green informalization plan. Hwp

Broadband Development and Public Policy, Canberra, 11 December

Adam Johns from the ANU Australia - Japan Research Centre asked me to pass on this invitation to a free workshop on Broadband Policy. I attended the one last year, which was worthwhile. Numbers are limited and you need to RSVP by the 5th December for catering purposes to: adam.johns(a)anu.edu.au

Australia - Japan Research Centre in conjunction with National Institute for Informatics, Tokyo

Broadband Development and Public Policy

Monday 11 December
Seminar Room 4, Floor 1 Crawford Building ANU, Canberra.

9:00am – 9:10 Welcome – Professor Jenny Corbett (Executive Director, AJRC)

9:10am – 10:30 Session 1: Broadband Development and Role of Government

Chair: Professor Franco Papandrea (University of Canberra)

Jong Kwan Lee (Crawford School, ANU)
What is the locomotive of broadband development – Government or Market? A case study of Korea

Adam Johns (Crawford School, ANU)
The limits of policy intervention in broadband take-up: a cross-national comparison

10:30 – 11:00 Morning Tea

11:00 – 12:30 pm Session 2: Broadband Policy

Chair: Noboru Sonehara (National Institute for Informatics)
Discussant: Richard Thwaites (Rich Communications)

Deborah Anton (Department of Communications Information Technology and the Arts)
Broadband development policy in Australia

Katsuya Watanabe (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications)
Broadband policy in Japan

12:30pm–1:15 Lunch

1:15 pm – 3:15 Session 3: Broadband and Public Private Partnerships

Chair: Professor Christopher Findlay (University of Adelaide)

Masashi Ueda (National Institute for Informatics)
Broadband Infrastructure Building in Japan: Market and Public Policy

Jeff Fountain (Crawford School, ANU)
Broadband Public Private Partnerships: Narrowing the Access Divide

3:15pm Closing Remarks – Professor Jenny Corbett (Executive Director, AJRC)

Also on in early December are three comms conferences:

• Australian IPv6 Summit 2006, Canberra, 4-6 December 2006
• Australian Telecommunication Networks and Applications Conference 2006, Melbourne, 4-6 December 2006
• Australia-Korea-New Zealand Broadband Summit, Adelaide, 7-8 December 2006

Australia Korea New Zealand Broadband Summit

There is a series of three in Australian in early December 2006:

Australian IPv6 Summit 2006, Canberra, 4-6 December 2006:

Internet Protocol Version 6 is already being deployed by Australian trading and defence partners in Asia, America and Europe. Ipv6 has the potential for enhanced mobility, easier management, built-in security and an almost unlimited range of new Internet addresses for next-generation devices... The IPv6 Summit offers two days of International and Australian experts addressing these questions and more, plus a new technology showcase and an optional one-day IPv6 Deployment Workshop, a hands-on guide to easy implementation.

Australian Telecommunication Networks and Applications Conference 2006, Melbourne, 4-6 December 2006:

... bringing together telecommunication researchers and students with equipment providers, user groups, regulators and infrastructure planners.

Key themes are:

* Broadband delivery and evolution
* Wireless sensor networks research and applications ...

Australia-Korea-New Zealand Broadband Summit, Adelaide, 7-8 December 2006:

... gathers the information technology and communications ministers and leaders within the broadband industry from Korea, New Zealand and Australia to encourage international collaboration in broadband. ... forum for telecommunications carriers, electronics companies, research organisations, telecommunications equipment providers, broadband applications and services developers to discuss and negotiate business and research interests across the three countries.

Unfortunately, unless you already had broadband you may never hear of these events. The Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts decided to send out the details of them in a 1.9Mbyte mail message with PDF attachments. This is one thousand times larger than it need be and makes the message much harder to read. There are much more efficient and effective ways to communicate on-line.