So far, the main employer of North Korean programmers would have to be the North Korean government: its bureaucracy, military, universities, and state enterprises. But, as I mentioned in my note whose link I posted to PEN-l a moment ago, North Korea has been slowly but surely following in the footsteps of China and Vietnam, cutting subsidies, deregulating prices, establishing capitalist management practice, introducing commercial advertising, building industrial parks and shopping malls, and even making a foray into online gambling. Foreign companies have been already employing North Korean geek labor power. Here's old news:
<blockquote>True, as of now only Kim Jong-il and a few others get to surf -- you remember the Dear Leader asking Madeleine Albright for her e-mail address -- and the country domain .kp remains unused. But, as Newsweek contradictorily admits, IT in general is actually one thing Pyongyang is pretty good at. Good enough for South Koreans to buy and market their translation software, and for Samsung to hire their programmers. (Aidan Foster-Carter, "Pyongyang Watch: North Korea: First of the Worst ," <em>Asia Times</em>, <a href="http://www.atimes.com/koreas/CG14Dg03.html">July 14, 2001</a>)</blockquote>
I haven't looked into the number of computers in North Korea. Why don't you email the German businessman and ask him about that? Maybe you can write an article on the state of IT development in North Korea. -- Yoshie
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