This was one of those "So what? ...oh." moments.

How did the NK government manage to get a (legitimate?) copy of Windows past embargos, and how did the photographer manage to sneak in a camera?

I'm guessing the government purchased from a distributor without NK trade sanctions.

I doubt the government purchased anything. It's ridiculously easy to download a pirated version of Windows, or just jump across the border to China and buy a CD for 50 cents.

It's very possible to bring cameras to North Korea. See this brilliant documentary filmed guerrilla style in North Korea. http://www.vbs.tv/video.php?id=1438428757

http://www.koryogroup.com/tours/grouptours.htm if you want to go yourself...

wow, that's a really awesome video series.

Ha! When I did a visa run to Burma last week they were all running Windows Vista- if it weren't for the pissed off looking guy with a sub-machine gun leaning against the wall I would've taken a picture :)

Well of course they use Windows... all the good software for monitoring/censoring net activity is written for Windows.

I don't think there's much net activity in North Korea, to be honest. You might be thinking of China? In any way filters are usually working at the ISP level, not on client machines. See http://www.boingboing.net/2008/05/22/cisco-internal-memo.htm...

That and voluntary censorship/collaboration by companies:

- Google censors itself for China: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4645596.stm

- Yahoo 'helped jail China writer': http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4221538.stm

Yeah, I'm embarrassed to say that I replied before I really thought this one through. Of course they wouldn't let computers that deal with passports/customs access the web, NK or otherwise.