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North Korea Gets Second Route To Internet Via Russia Link (bloomberg.com)
Russia is providing North Korea another way to get on the internet, according to cybersecurity outfit FireEye. In an interview on Monday, FireEye's chief technology officer for the Asia-Pacific region, Bryce Boland, said that Russia telecommunications company TransTeleCom opened a new link for users in North Korea. Until now, state-owned China United Network Communications Ltd. was the country's sole connection. Bloomberg reports: "Having an additional loop via Russia gives North Korea more options for how they can operate and reduces the possibility for the United States to put pressure just on a single country to turn off their internet connectivity," Boland said. For Russia, it offers "visibility into North Korean network traffic that might help them understand what North Korea is up to." TransTeleCom, a unit of state-owned Russian Railways JSC, is one of the country's five largest communications service providers, according to its website. The company operates a fiber optic network that runs along railway lines and stretches from Vladivostok to St. Petersburg. TransTeleCom "has historically had a junction of network links with North Korea" under a 2009 agreement with Korea Post and Telecommunications Corp, the company's press office said in an emailed statement that offered no other details.
For Russia, it offers "visibility into North Korean network traffic that might help them understand what North Korea is up to."
Surely they won't peek?
Time for bed, said Zebedee - boing
Now they can download at 112K!
FYI: North Korean was a Russia client state before it was a Chinese client state in the 20th century. Tim S.
in Soviet Russia we network you!
News for geeks... helpful if someone included the IP ranges so for those who desire to do so, the NK ranges could be blocked.
The US hammers China for supporting North Korea. In order to protect its access to US markets, China pulls back a little...on coal exports, for example. Russia moves into the vaccuum and increases its trade with North Korea threefold in the first half of 2017 (specifically including increased coal export to North Korea).
Russia's investment in getting a friend into the White House is sure paying off!
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
The article didn't get the point you intended across. In summary, because of the international sanctions, Russia has shifted its domestic economy more to agricultural production rather than import unbanned agricultural products. They revised their GDP growth from negative 0.6% to -0.5%. General economic growth is expected to be between 1-2%. These are ridiculously crappy numbers for a society that has poor infrastructure, and primarily a labor based market.
The article paints this as if the sanctions aren't working by comparing it to expectations that the economy should have crashed. This premise is based on just politician's talking points. But it is completely false. The point of sanctions isn't to crash the economy, create unrest, and leave the populace with little choice but to overthrow their leaders. If you want to crash the economy, infrastructure sabotage is best (ie: 9/11). But this is stupid, as all it will do is band the populace under their current leadership. Additionally, those with little to lose are more like to envy their neighbors and go to war (lesson of WWI and WWII).
No, the sanctions are doing exactly what they intended. They are preventing Russia from playing in the international economic game and reducing the speed of their social progress. Eventually they MAY see how far behind they are compared to other nations. But its a win win for the rest of the world. Either Russia will change or eventually become a low cost labor pool like China was 25 years ago. The nice thing about sanctions is that once lifted, the underlying economy will have massive growth and they can quickly catch up.
If sanctions non-violently switched a Russian rocket scientist or dentist from practicing their craft to baking bread... I don't think anyone should consider that a positive.