Red Star OS

Red Star OS (Chosŏn'gŭl: 붉은별; MR: Pulgŭnbyŏl) is a North Korean Linux-based operating system. Development started in 2002 at the Korea Computer Center (KCC). Prior to its development, computers in North Korea typically used English versions of Microsoft Windows. Version 3.0 was released in the summer of 2013, but as of 2014 version 2.5 continues to be more widely used. It is only offered in a Korean language edition, localized with North Korean terminology and spelling.

Specifications

Red Star OS features a modified Mozilla Firefox browser titled Naenara used for browsing the Naenara web portal on the North Korean intranet network known as Kwangmyong. Other software includes a text editor, an e-mail client, audio and video players, and games. Version 3, like its predecessor, runs Wine, a piece of software that allows Windows programs to be run under Linux.

Red Star OS 3.0, like its predecessors, uses a KDE 3 desktop. However, 3.0 more closely resembles Apple's OS X whereas previous versions more closely resembled Windows XP; current North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was seen with an iMac on his desk in a 2013 photo, indicating a possible connection to the redesign.

Media attention

The Japan-based, North Korea-affiliated newspaper Choson Sinbo interviewed two Red Star OS programmers in June 2006. In February 2010, a Russian international student at the Kim Il-sung University in Pyongyang purchased a copy and posted about it on his LiveJournal account; Russian television station RT then picked up his LiveJournal post and translated it into English. English-language technology blogs, including Engadget and Osnews, as well as South Korean wire services such as Yonhap, went on to repost the content. In late 2013, Will Scott, who was visiting the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, purchased a copy of version 3 from a KCC retailer in southern Pyongyang, and uploaded screenshots to the internet.

In 2015, two German researchers speaking at the Chaos Communication Congress described the internal operation of the OS. The North Korean government wants to track the underground market of USB flash drives used to exchange foreign movies, music and writing, and the system watermarks all files on portable media attached to computers.

See also

• Nova (operating system), a national operating system for Cuba