The Washington Post
National Security Context

Huawei and North Korea

Updated Jul 22, 2019 at 9:25 AM EST

Documents obtained by The Washington Post illustrate how the Chinese tech company Huawei quietly helped build and maintain North Korea’s first commercial 3G wireless network, Koryolink. The following images are excerpts of purchase orders and contracts dating to 2008 and 2012. They show the terms and prices for Huawei to provide telecom equipment to a Chinese state-owned firm, Panda International Information Technology Co. Ltd., which then supplied the materials to Koryolink. The network was built through CHEO Technology, a joint venture of the state-owned Korea Post and Telecommunications Trade Corp. and the Egyptian firm Orascom Telecom Holding, now called Orascom Investment Holding. Here's the story.

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Documents obtained by The Washington Post illustrate how the Chinese tech company Huawei quietly helped build and maintain North Korea’s first commercial 3G wireless network, Koryolink. The following images are excerpts of purchase orders and contracts dating to 2008 and 2012. They show the terms and prices for Huawei to provide telecom equipment to a Chinese state-owned firm, Panda International Information Technology Co. Ltd., which then supplied the materials to Koryolink. The network was built through CHEO Technology, a joint venture of the state-owned Korea Post and Telecommunications Trade Corp. and the Egyptian firm Orascom Telecom Holding, now called Orascom Investment Holding.