The North Korean government has reportedly made plans to strengthen security of its mobile network by the end of this year by ditching Chinese telecoms equipment – just months after deploying it. According to the Daily NK website, citing an anonymous source, the plan emerged in the wake of a conference of information and communication experts in Pyongyang last month to discuss upgrading the national mobile network. At the conference, some attendees argued that the current network is vulnerable to cyber attacks “due to its reliance on Chinese technology and equipment”. The plan aligns with the government’s overall goal of increasing self-reliance and beefing up security systems to not only repel external threats, but also strengthen internal supervision and control, the report added. While the plan is said to have wide support from the government, some experts have reportedly expressed concern that the timeline for achieving this by the end of the year may not be realistic.
