What's strange about the computer South Korea uses to communicate with North Korea?

Today (January 9), South Korea and North Korea held their first direct talks in more than two years, and the day before (January 3), the two sides agreed to reconnect the hotline at the truce village of Panmunjom. Photos taken by reporters of a South Korean computer and the telephone system on this hotline are making many people curious.

The computer is encased in a wooden frame and is described as a prop from a movie from the 80s and set in the year 2050.So what's so strange about this computer?

The computer South Korea uses to communicate with North Korea in the demilitarized zone is encased in a wooden case and placed on a long table along with a fax machine and two old-fashioned landline phones.

The computer hardware system is designed symmetrically with parallel optical drives, usb ports, speaker system, 2 blue-red phones and 2 mysterious silver devices. Above the computer screen are 2 digital clocks also placed symmetrically and displaying 2 different time frames.

And perhaps strangest of all, the computer screen was an image of “Bliss”—green hills and sky—which was the default wallpaper for Windows XP, Microsoft's 2001 operating system.

Dag Spicer, a senior curator at the Computer History Museum, said that while this type of computer communication system is not uncommon in the military, the wooden enclosure is quite unusual. For an expert like Dag Spicer, the two silver devices placed in the middle of the computer desk are both curious and confusing.

“I think this is like a ‘homemade’ computer system. They combined a Windows computer and attached it to a phone,” said Dag Spicer.

However, Mr. Dag Spicer also said that if the computer's operating system is really Windows XP, this will be a worrying security issue because Microsoft has stopped providing updates for this operating system since 2014.

Concerns about the risk of cyber attacks

It is unclear whether this computer is connected to the internet or not, as this old technology would be a tasty morsel for hackers.

Roger Anderson, a technology consultant in California, USA, believes that the software he saw on the computer screen is likely X-Lite. This is an internet telephony program, also known as VOIP, developed by CounterPath Software Company in Vancouver, Canada. To date, CounterPath Company has not responded to Mr. Anderson's comments.

“It is hard to imagine that they use VOIP in this important communication channel. This is a scary thing,”Mr. Anderson added.

Martyn Williams, a writer for 38 North, a website that specializes in North Korea analysis, is also concerned about South Korea's use of outdated operating systems in its communications with North Korea. Williams also expressed his doubts:“This is clearly a home computer and it is encased in wood and why would it be used in this particular case? Who would know?”

The BBC has also been very interested in this special communication system of South Korea. In a post last week, the BBC said that this system has two entrances and exits. In which, the blue phone is for making outgoing calls and the red phone is for receiving incoming calls.

According to the source, throughout 2016, when inter-Korean communication was interrupted, South Korea tried to make a phone call to North Korea every day. And last week was the first time the North picked up the phone. There is a scenario that if the wooden computer breaks down, South Korea must have a backup plan. That could be upgrading the communication computer system with a “fold phone”./.

Hoang Le