| Publication |
2009.
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| Summary/Abstract |
The formation of telecommunications policy poses a difficult challenge for authoritarian regimes: while improvements in telecommunications can contribute to material prosperity, they may also contribute to a loss of control. North Korean policies reveal an ambivalent attitude, driven by conflicting goals of modernization and control. This paper reviews North Korea's telecommunications infrastructure and provides a brief history of North Korean telecommunications policies in a variety of settings, paying particular attention to the recent decision to authorize Orascom, a foreign cellular provider, to provide nationwide cellular service, potentially leapfrogging from North Korea's dilapidated existing systems to a modern system.
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