Do you think North Korea’s software industry is capable of:

a) Making games for mobile phones that are widely used in Japan?
b) Developing programs that can recognize music from a few hummed bars?
c) Biometric software for facial recognition?
d)  Making animation for European children’s films and Chinese TV ads?

Well, I wouldn’t have thought so either. But along comes this report from a Dutch consultant who says he’s just spent a week touring Pyongyang’s software development sites. The five-page report says, surprisingly, that North Korea’s software and animation companies have the latest hardware and “a large pool of technically qualified” workers, some of whom have studied abroad.

The consultant, Paul Tjia, is a Rotterdam-based offshore IT consultant who says he was reluctant to visit North Korea for a week but came away surprised.

There is great detail about the Korea Computer Center, a 1,000-employee state-owned company in Pyongyang with branches abroad. What Tjia doesn’t mention is that KCC is now on the list of sanctioned entities by Washington and Tokyo, and anyone who does transacts with them is likely to feel a lot of heat.

In any case, if you visit the KCC campus, you can stay at a special hostel with swimming pool, and take in the butterflies -- “the largest I had ever seen” -- or play basketball with the local employees.