North Korea's imports of digital television sets from China have more than quadrupled this year, a South Korean trade group said Sunday, amid reports that the country is moving to introduce digital TV broadcasting.
In the first four months of the year, China shipped digital TVs amounting to some US$17.66 million to North Korea, up 338 percent from $4.02 million during the same period last year, according to the Korea International Trade Association.
The figure is the fifth-largest amount for any single item shipped from China to North Korea in the January-April period. Gasoline topped the list.
The North earlier said on a state-run website that it was moving to introduce digital TV broadcasting. The country also asked the U.N. International Telecommunication Union in 2011 for assistance in switching from an analog to a digital broadcasting system.
"The move by the North Korean government to switch to a digital broadcasting system appears to be an effort to win greater public support by showing that the people's lives are improving," said Cho Bong-hyun, an analyst at the IBK Economic Research Institute. (Yonhap)
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