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N. Korea’s new phone limits file transfers from foreign devices
No transfers of files from foreign made handsets not totally without precedent
Leo Byrne
July 14th, 2016
North Korea has updated its Arirang smartphone, with the newer model no longer allowing Bluetooth file transfers from foreign phones, according to Aram Pan at DPRK 360.
Pan photographed the new handset during his latest visit to North Korea. The settings panel shows the phone is the Arirang 151, and lists the build date as June 12 this year.
“The Arirang AP151 phone. Foreign android phones cannot transfer photos or files via Bluetooth to this new unit,” Pan wrote in the caption for the photograph.
The cell phone’s information screen also shows that like its predecessor, the new Arirang runs a version of Google’s Android operating system.
It’s unclear how often file transfers from foreign cell phones were occurring with previous North Korean handsets, however the DPRK protecting its electronics from outside files is not unprecedented.
“From what I know, North Korean tablets are not allowed to install external programs … I think we are talking about similar case here. Either with Bluetooth or with other connections methods, the North is preventing information from foreign phones getting into theirs,” Kim Jong-son, a researcher at the Science and Technology Policy Institute told NK News.
But Kim added that such security measures were likely not fool proof and could eventually be circumvented.
“It would be hard to tell me whether the process would be easy or not as I don’t know what kind of security measures were installed. But my guess is, someone coming from an IT educational background should be able to crack it, if they really wanted to.”
Previous reports have indicated how North Korea often loads domestic software with tools to track what users do or what files they open.
In December last year the country’s in-house operating system made headlines when security researchers discovered it watermarks every file, allowing the DPRK authorities to know where any file originated and who has viewed or opened them.
But despite North Korea’s claims that much its showcase consumer electronics hardware – including the Arirang Smartphone – is domestically produced, many experts suspect most of the technology is made by China and merely assembled in the DPRK.
Additional reporting by JH Ahn
Featured Image: IMG_9856 by NK10/10 on 2015-10-09 08:49:34
Sanctioned North Korean ship last seen heading for China
Ship stopped broadcasting location data, despite AIS good coverage in the region
Leo Byrne
July 13th, 2016
A sanctioned North Korean ship disappeared from tracking systems on Wednesday morning, with its last position indicating it was heading for the Chinese coast, the NK News vessel tracker shows.
The Chong Bong, one of the vessels on the UN’s 27 ship blacklist, was last seen heading west towards the Chinese port of Lanshan at 3am local time.
The vessel only broadcast a short burst of location data, which said it was “underway using engine” and travelling at a speed of 9 knots.
The 6800 tonne general cargo ship was still more than 50km from the Chinese coast, and could have turned north towards the Peninsula.
But the high number of vessels in the region broadcasting their positions indicate that tracking coverage in the area is good, so it is unclear why the sanctioned vessel would not appear on tracking systems if it had turned north.
An NK News report from June found that other sanctioned vessels had briefly appeared near Chinese ports towards the end of the month.
As in the most recent case, no instances of ships actually docking were observed, and no inspection records have been filed with local port state control authorities. Since June NK News confirmed no further documents allowing sanctioned ships to dock had been received by port authorities.
According to the Equasis and International Maritime Organisation databases the sanctioned Chong Bong is owned and operated by the Pyongyang based Chong Bong Shipping. The ship has had a busy few years, having been renamed three times and reflagged five times since 2013.
Another ship designated by the UN also left North Korean waters early on Wednesday morning heading south-west before also disappearing off tracking systems.
As with the Chong Bong, the Chol Ryong was heading into heavily trafficked waters with good AIS tracking covering when its location broadcasts ceased.
Under the newest UN resolution passed on March 2, it is against North Korean sanctions to allow the 27 ships listed in the document into any port.
The ships included in Resolution 2270 were members of the North Korean fleet linked to Ocean Maritime Management (OMM), a Pyongyang based shipping company known to aid in the DPRK’s weapons smuggling programs.
Featured image: Marine Traffic
Seoul confirms North Korean arrest of defector Ko Hyon-chol
JH Ahn
July 15th, 2016
The South Korean government on Friday afternoon confirmed reports that a defector called Ko Hyon-chol’s was arrested in North Korea.
Seoul demanded Pyongyang immediate release Ko, and other South Korean citizens currently detained in North Korea.
“We strongly condemn that North Korea has arrested our citizen and is using the arrest for its state propaganda,” the Ministry of Unification (MoU) told NK News on Friday.
“Seoul demands the immediate release and return of our citizens, including Ko Hyon-chol, Kim Jeong-wook (arrested in October 2013), Kim Kook-kie (October 2014) and Choi Chun-kil (December 2012).”
Ko’s arrest in North Korea was covered by a report from AFP, which said “Ko Hyon-Chol, 53, ‘confessed’ to attempting to kidnap two North Korean girl orphans and take them to the South.”
During a press conference held in Pyongyang attended by foreign media and diplomats, Ko said he was introduced to agents from South Korean’s spy agency in December 2015.
According to the report, Ko was told in May to “arrange the kidnapping of orphans from North Korea” with the National Intelligence Service (NIS) promising to paying $10,000 for each abductee. He subsequently crossed the river in to North Korea on May 27, but was soon arrested.
The news comes after a mass-defection of North Korean restaurant workers to South Korea in April.
But North Korea called the event a “mass-abduction,” blaming the NIS. State media claimed the defectors were on hunger strike and were demanding an immediate return to North Korea.
Seoul firmly denied Pyongyang’s claims related to the case, and reiterated that the North Korean workers defected of their own their free will, with an official from the MoU’s press office telling NK News the North’s claims are “not even worth the discussion.”
Congress cadres rewarded with new TVs
Choi Song Min | 2016-05-13 15:03
North Korea handed out 45-inch LED TVs as gifts to all Workers Party members who attended the 7th Party Congress. Previous rumors had hinted that the state would also provide all households with home appliances, but this has yet to materialize, Daily NK has learned.
Yesterday (May 11) in Pyongyang, everyone who took part in the Party Congress received a new 45-inch television, a source from South Pyongan Province told Daily NK. The high-end flat screen TVs came with a red flag-shaped label that says 7th Party Congress in yellow letters, where the TV brand name would usually be.
Attendees also received a large gift box packed with various sweets, snacks, and regional delicacies, the source added, confirming earlier reports by Daily NK that the North had started mass production of special snacks at the Gold Cup Athletes Comprehensive Food Factory for the political gathering.
When Pyongyang held its 6th Party Congress in October 1980, the state distributed color TV sets produced by Japanese manufacturer Hitachi, but with the brand label substituted to indallae (azalea) and Koran (peony), said the source.
The color televisions handed out 36 years ago were immensely popular, and the nature of this year gifts are also piquing curiosity, said the source, going on to speculate that sanctions were at least partially to blame for the regime choice to hand out cheaper Chinese products over superior Japanese goods this time.
Other rumors claim that state-factory managers who worked through the event stand to receive locally-produced refrigerators for their efforts.
Naturally, these rumors about gifts for those in the upper ranks have fueled complaints among the general public, most of whom were mobilized for the 70-Day Battle but have seen no compensation of any kind for their efforts. Most have concluded that the earlier rumors about special gifts or appliances were nothing more than hot air, noted the source.
However, the more elderly residents are less surprised, noting that it has always been this way with cadre-first politics, and therefore people should expect nothing more.
Those in Pyongyang fared better, as is generally the case in North Korea. Pyongyang residents received a month's worth of rations, and some snacks from their local shops, a source in the capital reported, But in the provincial areas, aside from the state-enterprises who managed to collect and distribute two weeks worth of food rations, nothing else was received.
*Translated by Jiyeon Lee
*Edited by Lee Farrand
North Korean officials peddle gifts from Kim Jong Un
Seol Song Ah | 2016-07-15 14:56
Presents handed out by Kim Jong Un to attendees of the Workers' Party Congress in May have made their way to the market, where they are being put up for sale. Additionally, word is getting around that the flat screen television sets distributed as gifts at the convention are of inferior quality, prompting cadres to repurpose them as wedding gifts for relatives.
Ever since the Congress convened in May, the glitzy gifts handed out to attendees have gathered a lot of attention from ordinary folks in North Korea. These high ticket items include LED TVs, refrigerators, washing machines, cosmetics, and clothes. However, apart from the symbolic significance of receiving a present from Kim Jong Un, the North Korean cadres who received the gifts are acknowledging that the products are low quality compared to imports.
"LED televisions became a must-have item for cadres well before the Congress. So plenty of cadres have already purchased superior quality South Korean and Japanese models. These gifts are nothing new for them, a source in South Pyongan Province told Daily NK on July 14. The electronics given as gifts are rumored to be made in China. This has caused the cadres and North Korea's new wealthy class [known as the donju, or money masters'] to regard them as inferior.
The source continued, although some of the cadres have indeed swapped out the televisions in their homes for the new ones they received at the Congress, some comment on the importance of family loyalty and pass them along to their children as wedding gifts. This is a roundabout expression that the cadres do not sincerely value the gifts received from Kim Jong Un. Transferring or selling gifts received from the leader is classified as disregarding the Highest majesty and is considered a political scandal. In the past, gift sellers have been punished for attempting to incite a rebellion.
Additional sources in Pyongyang and North Pyongan Province corroborated this news.
For example, around 2005, an Air Force Command cadre sold a television he had received as a gift from Kim Jong Il to an acquaintance. He then took the profits and purchased a Japanese model. The incident was filed with the Central Party, and the cadre was ultimately dismissed and exiled to the countryside as a result.
However, giving the gifts to family members is not considered problematic. Therefore, cadres who do not need the gifts are attempting to lower the chances that they will be punished by keeping the gifts in the family.
Cadres who have already filled their homes with foreign products do not cherish the gifts but are still fearful [of potential repercussions], hence why some are just storing them in their home or giving them to family members. Others are selling things like Unhasu cosmetics and workout apparel on the black market," he explained.
These gifts hold none of the symbolic meaning they once did in the past. At this point, cadres and even ordinary folks do not consider Kim Jong Un to be a truly great leader. That's why they feel that gifts received from him carry no special meaning, and they evaluate the worth of the items with the same criteria that they evaluate the worth of goods found in the market. Although there are certainly some people who consider having such gifts in their home to be an honor, loyalty is withering away as time goes by."
In contrast, most people during the Kim Il Sung era considered gifts from the leader to be a family treasure. However, that kind of political loyalty is fading away, the source said, noting, "They feel less pride in the leader, and so they consider gifts from him as worthless objects.
*Translated by Jonathan Corrado
Latest pic. Handsome or not?
Defectors, organization deny involvement in kidnap plot
Multiple individuals deny claims made by Ko Hyon-chol following his arrest in North Korea
JH Ahn
July 18th, 2016
Defectors accused of taking part in an abduction plot have denied the accusations and said that the recently arrested Ko Hyon-chol would have been coerced into making them by North Korean authorities following his arrest.
Ko, a defector himself, was detained in May for what North Korea claimed to be a plot to kidnap North Korean orphans and remove them from the country.
In his televised ‘confession’ last week, Ko had described certain defectors, including Ju Seong-ha, as U.S. and South Korean intelligence agency collaborators involved in the plot.
“I laughed for a long time when I read that North Korean announcement – spoken through Ko Hyon-chol’s mouth – which described me as if I am the ‘protector’ of the President Park Geun-hye’s government,” Ju told NK News on Monday.
Ko claimed the abduction plan was first ordered by Suzanne Scholte of the Defense Forum Foundation (DFF) with South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) backing the operation. Ko also claimed that Ju was also part of the DFF, which he firmly denies.
“I have never met or talked to Suzanne Scholte or the DFF, but I was described as the informant of that forum.”
Ju added that he thought the entirety of Ko’s statement was absurd, but understood Ko’s situation in that he was most likely coerced to read the script provided by the North under duress.
During his televised confession, Ko also referenced a South Korean defector run NGO – the “Association of North Koreans rescue” – and claimed that he had met with representatives of the association multiple times in order to carry out the abduction plan.
However, an official from the association told NK News that the only interaction with Ko occurred in 2014, when the organization helped him successfully defect to South Korea.
“We only brought him to South Korea, that is it, and I don’t know much about Ko at all,” the official, who wished to remain anonymous, told NK News on Monday.
“He came to South Korea sometime around March or April of 2014, so he has been in the country for only over one and a half years, excluding six months of Hanawon. I don’t understand why he is saying what he is saying in the North.”
The official called the claims ridiculous and said that the organization didnt get an opportunity to meet with Ko following his arrival in South Korea.
Following Ko’s press conference last Friday, the South Korean Ministry of Unification (MoU) told NK News that it strongly condemned the North’s arrest of a South Korean citizen and the use of his arrest for propaganda purposes.
The full transcript of Ko’s statement was made available in Korean on North Korean state media.
Featured image: Rodong Sinmun
Informants target Chinese mobile phone users
Kim Chae Hwan | 2016-07-20 18:00
In an ongoing bid to tighten control on communication with the outside world, North Korean security authorities are actively soliciting informants to arrest users of foreign mobile phones on "espionage charges."
The informants are tasked with monitoring fellow residents suspected of placing international calls and reporting their findings back to the local State Security Department (SSD) unit, a source in North Hamgyong Province told Daily NK on Tuesday.
“Informants employ different tactics to try to induce confidants to place calls to the South, like encouraging them to call their loved ones and check in or ask for money in the case of financial troubles,” she explained. The goal, she added, is for the SSD officers to arrive on the scene and arrest the transgressors for “attempting to overthrow the regime.”
This method is not new. SSD personnel routinely employ threatening tactics to coerce their informants to report on the perceived illicit acts of subjects under their monitoring purview.
Informants, in most cases, comply with these terms in return for favorable treatment in their own criminal cases. For example, agents may offer early release to prisoners who are in re-education camps for lighter crimes if they agree to work as moles.
“These informants end up with no choice but to monitor their neighbors’ every move while pretending to treat them like family. Residents in the ‘hostile class’ [within the songbun classification system, which is based on family political background and loyalty] typically top the list for increased surveillance,” she explained.
A separate source in North Hamgyong Province reported a recent incident to highlight how duplicitous these informants can be. When a close friend of woman in her 50s, known to be placing phone calls to South Korea on a Chinese cell phone, reported her activity to the SSD, “the community was shocked,” he said. “The two of them were so close.”
Luckily, the woman evaded espionage charges and arrest. However, “the sentiment on the ground is that there’s no one left to trust,” the source said. “People are worried the state is succeeding in tearing us apart from the inside.”
Thus far, patchy implementation, bribery, and residents’ intuition counter the efficacy of the leadership’s efforts to stymie the pervasive use of Chinese mobile phones by North Koreans in border regions.
Nonetheless, tension naturally runs high when clampdowns are underway. “Those who depend on placing outside calls to make a living are getting by day to day at the moment, never forgetting the inherent risks involved,” the source said.
The same could be said for security forces desperate to avoid implication. As previously reported by Daily NK, an Ministry of People’s Security official in Ryanggang Province was arrested for pocketing bribes to turn a blind eye to residents placing phone calls to South Korea.
*Translated by Jiyeon Lee
_________________________________________
Crackdown targets messaging app users
Kim Chae Hwan | 2016-06-07 00:45
North Korean users of foreign messenger applications such as Kakao Talk, Line, and WeChat will be arrested on the spot on suspicion of espionage, according to a new order handed down from the authorities. Sources inside the country interpret the move as Kim Jong Un's aggressive reaction to the capability of Chinese cellphones to facilitate the import and export of information into the isolated country.
As recently reported by Daily NK, the North Korean authorities have ramped up efforts to label Chinese cellphone users as traitors and pursuing strict punishments against them. To this end, North Korean authorities doubled down on the use of signal detectors to trace illicit international calls and zero in on the location of foreign phone users.
However, the messenger apps allow users to circumvent detection by this equipment, prompting the regime to respond with new threats specifically targeting users of these communication applications.
“A measure has been enacted that orders the immediate arrest of ‘traitorous’ residents who use foreign messenger applications. The regime further threatened that those caught will not be offered clemency under any condition,” a source in Ryanggang Province told Daily NK on June 2.
“Offenders who are apprehended will be processed according to the discretion of the arresting agency-- i.e. the State Security Department or the Ministry of People’s Security. Those taken in will be charged with espionage associating with the enemy and dispatched to a political prison camp.”
According to the source, the regime first began showing interest in foreign messenger apps in May 2014. At the time, residents who continuously used Chinese cellphones were arrested, and through the course of the investigation process, the authorities discovered that information was being sent back and forth through apps such as the South Korean texting service Kakao Talk.
“At that time, the authorities decided to define such activity as espionage and handed down an order to strictly punish offenders,” he said.
The crackdown on messenger services therefore strengthened from that moment on. The South Korean service Line and the Chinese service WeChat also became targets of surveillance at that point.
“These days, Line and Kakao Talk are explicitly mentioned in lectures [routinely delivered to residents by the authorities]. That’s how serious the crackdown has become,” a separate source in Ryanggang Province said.
This, he went on to say, is unprecedented--hitherto, there had been no mention of foreign cell phone applications at official lectures. Such a proactive measure reveals Kim Jong Un’s acute awareness of the adverse effects foreign information and defections pose to the stability of the regime, further highlighted by his blustery accusation that South Korea kidnapped 13 North Korean restaurant workers who recently escaped their posts in China and fled to seek asylum in the South.
*Translated by Jonathan Corrado
North Korean officials peddle gifts from Kim Jong Un
Seol Song Ah | 2016-07-15 14:56
Presents handed out by Kim Jong Un to attendees of the Workers' Party Congress in May have made their way to the market, where they are being put up for sale. Additionally, word is getting around that the flat screen television sets distributed as gifts at the convention are of inferior quality, prompting cadres to repurpose them as wedding gifts for relatives.
Ever since the Congress convened in May, the glitzy gifts handed out to attendees have gathered a lot of attention from ordinary folks in North Korea. These high ticket items include LED TVs, refrigerators, washing machines, cosmetics, and clothes. However, apart from the symbolic significance of receiving a present from Kim Jong Un, the North Korean cadres who received the gifts are acknowledging that the products are low quality compared to imports.
"LED televisions became a must-have item for cadres well before the Congress. So plenty of cadres have already purchased superior quality South Korean and Japanese models. These gifts are nothing new for them,” a source in South Pyongan Province told Daily NK on July 14. “The electronics given as gifts are rumored to be made in China. This has caused the cadres and North Korea’s new wealthy class [known as the donju, or ‘money masters'] to regard them as inferior.”
The source continued, “Although some of the cadres have indeed swapped out the televisions in their homes for the new ones they received at the Congress, some comment on the importance of ‘family loyalty’ and pass them along to their children as wedding gifts. This is a roundabout expression that the cadres do not sincerely value the gifts received from Kim Jong Un. Transferring or selling gifts received from the leader is classified as disregarding the ‘Highest Dignity’ and is considered a political scandal. In the past, gift sellers have been punished for attempting to incite a rebellion.
Additional sources in Pyongyang and North Pyongan Province corroborated this news.
For example, around 2005, an Air Force Command cadre sold a television he had received as a gift from Kim Jong Il to an acquaintance. He then took the profits and purchased a Japanese model. The incident was filed with the Central Party, and the cadre was ultimately dismissed and exiled to the countryside as a result.
However, giving the gifts to family members is not considered problematic. Therefore, cadres who do not need the gifts are attempting to lower the chances that they will be punished by keeping the gifts in the family.
“Cadres who have already filled their homes with foreign products do not cherish the gifts but are still fearful [of potential repercussions], hence why some are just storing them in their home or giving them to family members. Others are selling things like Unhasu cosmetics and workout apparel on the black market," he explained.
These gifts hold none of the symbolic meaning they once did in the past. “At this point, cadres and even ordinary folks do not consider Kim Jong Un to be a truly ‘great’ leader. That’s why they feel that gifts received from him carry no special meaning, and they evaluate the worth of the items with the same criteria that they evaluate the worth of goods found in the market. Although there are certainly some people who consider having such gifts in their home to be an honor, loyalty is withering away as time goes by."
In contrast, most people during the Kim Il Sung era considered gifts from the leader to be a family treasure. However, that kind of political loyalty is fading away, the source said, noting, "They feel less pride in the leader, and so they consider gifts from him as worthless objects.”
*Translated by Jonathan Corrado
North Hwanghae residents plagued by water supply, sanitation issues
Kim Chae Hwan | 2016-07-18 18:01
Despite the onset of the rainy season in North Korea, the dire state of the water supply system in North Hwanghae Province means that many of its inhabitants still face inaccessibility to and shortages of water.
Residents of Suan County lack access to a proper water supply system, often forcing them to walk approximately ten-ri (roughly 4km) or further in search of water, a source from North Hwanghae Province told Daily NK. Where cadres can transport water with the help of tractors or ox carts, ordinary residents have little choice but to carry what they can on their backs.
While wells dot the surrounding areas, the demand almost always exceeds available supply, exacerbated by successive years of devastating drought. Mercifully, the source said, the monsoon season does bring with it some relief. Collecting rainwater in buckets and washbowls to boil and use is relatively easy during this period and saves them the long trip.
It is, he quickly cautioned, “far from being a proper and sufficient supply of water," noting that many are frequently on the brink of dehydration.
When rain is less frequent--a common occurrence, as rainfall in North Korea is highly seasonal-- residents resort to drawing stagnant water from irrigation ditches or reservoirs near rice paddies, which is rife with waterborne diseases.
“When the water levels are at their poorest in the winter, people melt snow to give children baths,” he said, “but this water is often polluted and leads to skin diseases.”
This issue is especially acute in North Hwanghae Province, impacting not only Suan County but also Singye and Koksan Counties, among others. Affected residents have long wanted to move elsewhere due to the chronic water issues, but are hamstrung by the state’s tight grip on people's freedom of movement, according to the source.
The change in leadership ushered in brief flashes of hope for change in this arena, but these have since faded. "The circumstances surrounding the water situation remain “completely unchanged” under Kim Jong Un," added a second source in North Hwanghae Province.
“The state has talked about its five-year economic development plan and how it’s going to improve the people’s living standards, but people have complained that if it can’t even figure out the water issue, the overall situation is pretty hopeless."
It should be noted that this small but growing contingent is almost always constituted of residents with comparable access to the outside world, usually by way of radio or word of mouth. Those without this exposure, unfortunately, “simply accept their grim reality as fate,” she said.
“People living in the valleys are often entirely alienated from the outside world. This makes them assume that everyone else must be struggling just as they are and less prone to airing related frustrations.”
Meanwhile, the state has been pouring its resources into the “200-Day Battle” to build Ryomyong Street in Pyongyang, hailed in state media as Kim Jong Un's next legacy project, rather than diverting those resources to much-needed improvements to meet its population's most basic needs.
*Translated by Jiyeon Lee
'200-Day Battle' leads to suicide in Ryanggang Province
Kang Mi Jin | 2016-07-19 17:06
A North Korean woman in her 40s took her own life earlier this month when, despite physical ailment, she was relentlessly pressured to participate in the “200-Day Battle” mobilization, Daily NK has learned.
The victim, a resident of Janghangri, Kimjongsuk County, which is located in the northerly Ryanggang Province, hung herself because “she was too sick to go to work," a source in the province told Daily NK. "But State Security Department (SSD) and Ministry of State Security (MPS) agents kept visiting her place to tell her to work. This seems to have prompted her to take her own life."
Additional sources in Ryanggang Province confirmed this news.
Toiling for countless hours yet still struggling to make ends meet, she was said to have grown increasingly despondent and disillusioned, lamenting, “There’s no point in living like this,” to those around her, according to the source.
In addition to working on a collective farm, she sold goods at the market to eke out a meager existence; however, this was no longer an option once she fell ill. That this unfortunate chain of events coincided with the added stress of the “200-Day Battle,” the source speculated, "may have pushed her to the brink."
Such an opinion is founded. In farming communities particularly, it is much more difficult to find time to work in the markets during mass mobilizations. The state lays out production goals by farm, and daily quotas are to be fulfilled, without exception. For families in these farming communities, forced mobilizations mean less regular income from the markets and a greater likelihood of not having enough to eat.
Any physical illness, as highlighted in the case of the female farm worker, only exacerbates matters. Sickness hampers one’s ability to engage in selling at the markets in the evening after a day of laboring in the fields. Moreover, without proper access to medication, and significantly weakened from the physical toll of manual labor, one’s condition can rapidly deteriorate along with his or her livelihood.
“If you’re unwell, you might get one or two days [off work],” the source said, “but after that, SSD and MPS personnel obsessively show up at your place. You can’t even be sick in peace.”
She attributed much of this compulsion in this case not to the mobilization itself, but rather to the increased incidence of chonghwa (self-criticism sessions) and emphasis on political ramifications for non-compliance therein.
*Translated by Jiyeon Lee
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