Despite Kim Jong Il's call for an “IT revolution” in North Korea some 10 years ago, North Korea is not exactly world-renown for its scientific and technological expertise. To the extent that North Korean technology appears in the world media at all, it is usually in articles about Pyongyang's nuclear program. Of course, the main focus of international media attention is not so much on North Korea's level of technological development—still thought to be relatively primitive—but its level of threat. North Korean technology is generally associated with crude militarism, not scientific sophistication. According to much of world opinion, especially in the US, Japan, and South Korea, North Korea is a political renegade and economic disaster that devotes far too much of its sparse technological resources to missiles and nuclear weapons.
