North, South Korea Unite Over Linux

The new project, tentatively named "Hana Linux", was announced at the ICMIP 2007 event in Yenji, China, last week and will be developed jointly by both Koreas and China, according to a report from ETNews, the Web site of daily Korean technology newspaper The Electronic Times. A Linux event in Pyongyang, North Korea, in the early part of 2008 will report on progress.

As well as a new, unified Linux, the two Koreas will also co-operate on office software in the Korean language. They also promised to work to iron out differences in IT terminology between South and North Koreans and Korean Chinese.

The idea was suggested by Hee-tak Moon of the Korea Open Source Software Association (Kossa) in South Korea, and approved by the heads of the three IT bodies--the Reunification IT Forum in South Korea, North Korea's Chosun People's Science Technology Association, and the Chinese Information Society--who were joint hosts of ICMIP 2007.

ZDNet Asia