People in the comments seem confused, let me sum this up for you all.
1) This is not some hack of OS X or an OS they have made, they have taken a Linux distribution and made it their own as they are free to.
2) They did not design and create an OS X theme, there are plenty of OS X themes available on the internet you can download and install.

Summary, they downloaded a Linux distribution, tweaked it a bit and installed a theme that looks like OS X.

Finally something sensible

Why can't you leave us to believe the worst?? I hate it when people bring facts and rational thinking to the comments.

Technically, North Korea is only free to modify GNU/Linux if they open-source the result (which is the key feature of the GPL, which Linux is licensed under. It appears they have not done so.)

First, learn the difference between GPL and Open Source. Secondly, how do you know what they have done, do you have a copy of it?

Lol even North Korea thinks Windows is too shitty to copy

Apple sucks. North Korea can't do anything better with it though,...

This is cool. I'm moving to NK!

No, you're not.

Joke's on him!

Obviously the writer of this post have no idea about Linux and Open Source. The Red Star OS has been available for free for the world to download for at least 3 years and its developers are in contact with thousands people in the world from the Open Source community. So, there is no need of any friend teaching in North Korea for leaking screenshots. So this news is not any novelty nor nothing new.

Yep, old news more exciting that North Korea is more in the news lately.

http://www.noobslab.com/201...

Finally a affordable apple computer to buy ..... :)

Thanks to North Koreans!

Two key missing pieces of information from this report:
1. it is entirely free
2. it definitely doesn't contain a hidden CIA back door.
One question: when is available in English?

If this interests you there are many, many linux distros that are available in English. http://distrowatch.com/

maybe (just maybe) it contains a couple thousand hidden NK security bureau back doors

Perhaps, but I have yet to hear of the North Korea lifting innocent people of the streets of European cities, bungling them into vans, flying them off to secret torture camps and force-feeding them through anal tubes indefinitely. Nor, as far as I know, do they have the ability to collaterally, and with absolute immunity, kill the wrong guy anywhere in the world by sending a missile down a mobile phone signal. Last I heard they were starving, bankrupt and were finding it hard to keep the lights on. Assess the risk.

Or this is just a skinned OSX version, who knows

It is based on Linux.

OSX IS based on Linux!

On Unix you idiot.

Yeah. Fucking idiot.

OSX is Unix based.

Actually, its based on BSD Linux, which is a derivitive of POSIX.

So many people who don't know how to use Google or Wikipedia, in one thread...

BSD is not Linux.

https://www.freebsd.org/doc...

it is based in a base. What toppings do you want today?

Elementary OS, Pear OS, mac4lin etc

Elementary OS developing is realy sloooow, Pear OS is dead, mac4lin is just crappy theme and dock

whats next iphone...

KPhone

wonder if there is a English language pack. would be interested to see it run in a VM

English installation instruction is here http://richardg867.wordpres...

Did we just find out that NK can hack and now code a operating system equivalent to OSX... mind blown.

Then you clearly haven't tried this thing out. They achieved what the guys working on Pear OS could only dream of. The Dock, the file system, file manager, the way the window manager works. It's such a close copy of snow leopard. I'm honestly amazed with this thing. If it were forked, this could really be a nice poor man's OS X.

Will it be cheaper than free?

Unless Apple has started giving out Macs, then it's not free. The OS is legally limited to Macs.

The new icons, different language, different logo but still an embodiment of patent breach. Who would have thought a day would come when a country would become a pirate?

Are you serious? It's just a theme, nothing new.

http://www.noobslab.com/201...

Theme or no theme, design concepts are integral parts of the owners patent and as such should not be stolen by a COUNTRY. How can a country trying to acquire nukes not be able to develop its own theme/design?

North Korea has zero laws against piracy, so any copyright claim by Apple would most likely result in nothing being done.

North Korea can't even feed its people, their lack of respect for intellectual property is totally meaningless.

No such thing as "Homegrown" in Asia. Everything was invented by the West - software, OS, electricity, transistors, electronics. These are the fundamental building blocks of technology.

yes you are correct , but West people are like labor who build thing and Asian are the one who know how to utilize them. for example Hotmail, processor and yahoo, even Microsoft CEO, all are Asian and they Rokz

Whoever wrote this article seems not familiar with Linux.

This operating system looks pretty damn good to me, given that it is supposed to run on older computers. I wouldn't be surprised if they took one of China's older OSes and redesigned it (Pinguy, by chance?)

Next stop is the all new iPyongyang. Catch it on The Interview 2, $4.99 on Hulu.

Waiting for a similar product from the russians.