With the internet in North Korea being more or less a propaganda vehicle rather than an information superhighway, its commendable, to say the least, that the country has its own VOD service.
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NK News reports that the country’s Korea Central Television has launched a new service called Manbang which means “everywhere” or “every direction”.
Manbang offers on-demand Russian and English language lessons, “documentary films about the leadership”, selected newspaper articles, and other content curated around the state’s wishes.
North Koreans with access to the state-run version of the internet are now able to watch movies and TV shows on demand, thanks to “Manbang”.
According to statistics from the World Bank and Netcraft, there are no servers listed per million people in the country past year.
North Korea, affectionately called the Hermit Kingdom is notoriously known for its isolation from the rest of the world.
The on-demand service menus will divide programming by channel and genre, and viewers will be able to select an on-demand show going back a full week.
There is also apparently a Roku device clone readily availabe, meaning it’s easier than ever to watch Kim John Un look at things, or enjoy footage of the country’s progress launching rockets a few hundred feet into the air before they crash into the ocean.
Kim Jong Min, head of the centre in charge of providing information and technology in North Korea, outlined the seemingly basic service during the KCTV report.
“When judging from the content of the video, the North [appears to have] technology related to IPTV [internet protocol television]”, a South Korean professor at a national university said on condition of anonymity.
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Joo Dae Hyun, a senior official at communications agency of North Phyongan Province told KCTV: “Since Sinuiju is a border and gateway city, people have trouble in watching TV due to radio interference”.
