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The North Korean government is set to launch its own cloud computing service, a state-run outlet reported on Friday.

The service, similar to iCloud, Dropbox or Google Drive, is called Eunjong, meaning benevolent affection, local outlet Arirangmaeri said.

These days, the Information Science Technology Department, State Academy of Sciences is pushing to finish the preparation for the cloud computing service, local outlet Arirangmaeri said on Friday.

The article didnt say exactly when the service will be open to the public, but said it is close to release and that it was part of a move to catch up with the growing demand for the cloud service, it said.

If launched, Eunjongwill be North Koreas first clouding computer service: previous articles in state media have not used the term (cloud computing service).

Soon, the parallel computing service homepage Eunjong will be established, and the users will be able to enjoy data center service software service and do large scale scientific calculation using the website.

Given North Koreas strict control of the flow of information from the outside world, its unlikely Eunjong will be linked to the internet: access will most likely be restricted to the countrys closed intranet system, to which only half a million North Koreans are believed to have regular access.

In the article, the State Academy of Sciences a North Korean government body which manages the nations scientific development claimed thatEunjongs high-performance server will provide up to 40 trillion floating-point operations per second (40T FLOPS).

While the number might seem significant, one long-time North Korea IT watcher said he feels sorry for the North Koreans who would be using the technology, which is more than a decade behind its South Korean equivalent.

Just a single smartphone produced these days has one million, five million or even up to ten million FLOPS, Choi Sung, a professor at the Computer Science department at Namseoul University, told NK News.

While it is far behind South Korea, Choi said that 40T FLOPS is an impressive performance for a North Korean server.

I would sayEunjongs performance would be close to what a South Korean bank website mightprovide, he said. Due to the shortage of servers, which they would haveto spend precious foreign currency to import, it seems that the North Korean IT developers are trying to build a single powerful parallel computer, and run multiple servers on that system using the cloud computing technology.

Multiple reports by NK News indicatethat the countrys intranet is expanding. Last month, North Korea announced the launch of its highly popular Kwangwang website, an apparently intranet-based tourism website which allows users to plan holiday itineraries.

In November last year, Manmulsang, another intranet-based platform for North Korean Donju (entrepreneurs) was announced, claiming over 3.2 million accumulated internal visitors to the website in ten months.

Edited by Oliver Hotham

Featured Image: DPRK Today

The North Korean government is set to launch its own cloud computing service, a state-run outlet reported on Friday. The service, similar to iCloud, Dropbox or Google Drive, is called Eunjong, meaning benevolent affection, local outlet Arirangmaeri said. These days, the Information Science Technology Department, State Academy of Sciences is pushing to finish the preparation

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North Korea will soon launch cloud computing service, says state media - NK News