Technofile: North Korea's recent decision to declare that it would give up nuclear weapons is unlikely to have anything to do with a desire for capitalist gadgets. But democratic South Korea is now the most tech-savvy country in the world, so I'd forgive the North if there was just a hint of desire to get its hands on the latest in the South's arsenal.
Surveying the gizmos coming out of South Korea is a bit like glimpsing the technological future two to five years hence.
You start to see that some the more bizarre ideas of science fiction are not so crazy after all, such as TVs that turn to face you automatically, 45GB DVDs, laptops with built-in satellite TV receivers and mobile phones with hard drives that play 40 TV channels.
The Pidion BM-200's unimaginative name belies the sheer amount of features packed into its iPod-like form.
With a 520MHz Intel chip, the mobile phone (yes, it's a mobile) runs the Windows CE 5.0 operating system and features a whopping 2.0 megapixel camera with flash. The list doesn't stop there. It has Wi-Fi wireless internet access, Bluetooth and infra-red for communicating with other devices. It also features an MP3 player and an SD card slot for expandable memory. The 2.8 inch LCD screen will display vertically or horizontally.
Then there's the Viliv P1 (what's with these names?). It's small and compact and suspiciously like the Apple iPod again, although slightly heavier. This digital media player features an FM radio/recorder, USB port and a six-hour video battery life. It comes with a 20GB hard drive, and a four-inch screen plays a variety of video and audio formats.
But this glimpse over the digital hill at what lies beyond also reveals a potentially more restrictive future, something opposite to what we've become used to. SK Telecom, the leading mobile network in South Korea, is launching a new digital music service called Melon. But far from making music more portable, Melon will incorporate its own digital rights management system to protect downloaded music from being moved between devices. The music just won't play anywhere else - not on non-SK mobile phones or any digital music players.
Nor will SK's handsets play songs from the iTunes Music Store. Admittedly, iTunes songs don't play on anything other than the iPod, but this is the first time a similar move has been made by the mobile phone networks.
All in all, it's uncharacteristically reminiscent of North Korea's fairly restrictive approach to society. Its official website, "My Country" (www.kcckp.net), comes complete with martial music, breaking news on dictator "Kim Jong Il's Activity" and "Happy Birthday, Kim Jong Il". The link to "Korea Computer Center!" doesn't work.
Hopefully, this is not the shape of things to come.
