A Russian blogger studying in North Korea has posted some information about Red Star, North Korea's first indigenous operating system. We wonder why anybody would want to study in North Korea, but that it beside the point.

Boffins from the sane part of the Korean peninsula, South Korea, examined the OS and concluded that it was aimed at monitoring using activity, which is about the same as concluding that the Pope is Catholic. Their report noted that the OS is designed to control information security and that it will not be easily distributed due to the sheer lack of applications. Is it just me, or are South Korean experts just experts in stating the obvious?

Red Star is based on Linux, so no imperialist swine is making any money on intellectual property rights. It's being sold on the streets of Pyongyang for $5 a pop and it has some features that international users might find a bit awkward. For example, it uses the North Korean calendar which starts from the birth of Great Leader Kim Il-Sung, so 2010 is actually 99.

Sadly, the average North Korean citizen rarely has access to proper sustenance, let alone PCs with internet connectivity, which are reserved for party officials in the Hermit Kingdom. Oddly enough, on one occasion North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il told former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright that he was an internet expert.

More here.