Internet in North Korea

Internet access is available in North Korea, but is only permitted with special authorization. It is primarily used for government purposes and by foreigners. The country has some broadband infrastructure, including fiber optic links between major institutions.[1] Online services for most individuals and institutions are provided through a free domestic-only network known as Kwangmyong, with access to the global Internet limited to a much smaller group.[2]

Internet software

Access to the World Wide Web is obtained in North Korea via Naenara, a modified version of the Firefox Web browser that can access approximately 1,000 to 5,500 websites in the Internet. It runs on Red Star OS, a North Korean Linux distribution.[3]

In 2016, the IPTV service Manbang commenced, accessed by a Wi-Fi enabled set-top box.[4]

Service providers and access

Internet access in North Korea is available from Internet service provider Star Joint Venture Co., a joint venture between the North Korean government's Post and Telecommunications Corporation and Thailand-based Loxley Pacific. Star JV took control of North Korea's Internet address allocation on 21 December 2009.[5] Prior to Star JV, Internet access was available only via a satellite link to Germany, or for some government uses through direct connections with China Unicom.[6] Nearly all of North Korea's Internet traffic is routed through China.[7]

Since February 2013, foreigners have been able to access the Internet using the 3G telecommunications network provided by Koryolink.[8][9][10]

Permission to access the Internet remains tightly restricted. However, the IT industry has been growing and Internet access is gradually increasing within North Korea.[11] In October 2010, the website of the Korean Central News Agency went live from a web server hosted in North Korea. It is accessible globally on a North Korean IP address, marking the country's first known direct connection to the Internet.[12] Around the same time, on 9 October, journalists visiting Pyongyang for the Workers' Party's 65th anniversary celebrations were given access to a press room with Internet connectivity.[13][14] As of December 2014, 1,024 IP addresses are known to exist in North Korea, although The New York Times journalists David E. Sanger and Nicole Perlroth believe that the actual number may be higher.[15] The total amount of Internet users is estimated at no more than a few thousand.[16] People who can access the Internet without limits are claimed to be high-ranking officials, members of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and government ambassadors.[7][17] Kim Jong-il told a visiting North Korean dignitary in 2002 that he had spent much time on South Korean websites.[18] According to Ofer Gayer, a security researcher of Incapsula, the country's total web traffic footprint has been less than that of the Falkland Islands.[19][20] Joo Seong-ha, a The Dong-a Ilbo journalist and a North Korean defector, said in 2014 the government's intranet Kwangmyong has been used to limit the general public's global Internet usage, especially in hotels. Although available in most campuses, the government has "strictly monitored the Internet usage".[17]

Since Apple Inc., Sony, and Microsoft are not allowed to distribute their products to North Korea, third-party companies have bought their products and been selling them to customers. Very little is known about the electronics industry in North Korea due to the government's isolation policies.[7]

In April 2016, North Korea began to block Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and South Korean websites, due to "its concern with the spread of online information".[21]

On 19 September 2016, North Korea's nameserver that contains information about all of the ".kp" websites was misconfigured, allowing researchers to access and publish[22] the domain names and some of the file data about the site, including zone information for .kp, co.kp, com.kp, edu.kp, gov.kp, net.kp, org.kp, and rep.kp, revealing that North Korea has only 28 websites facing the Internet.[23][24][25]

In September 2017, Russian telecommunication company TransTeleCom established direct Internet connection to North Korea, causing China Unicom to no longer be the sole provider of Internet access for North Korea.[26][27]

Government use of the Internet

As of 2018, construction of an Internet Communication Bureau headquarters is underway in Pyongyang.[28]

North Korean websites

There are about 30 websites, such as Uriminzokkiri, run by the DPRK government.[29] South Korean police have identified 43 pro-North Korean websites that have foreign-based servers. The police report that these websites encourage hostile attitudes towards South Korea and Western countries, and portray the DPRK in a positive light. According to The Dong-a Ilbo, foreign-based websites include the following: Joseon Tongsin (Korean News Service) and Guk-jeonseon in Japan, Unification Arirang in China, Minjok Tongsin in the United States, and twelve new pro-North Korean websites have launched, including the "Korea Network".[30] In August 2010, BBC News reported that an agency contracted by the North Korean government has fielded an official DPRK YouTube channel, Facebook and Twitter accounts for Uriminzokkiri. Both the Twitter and YouTube accounts are solely in Korean. The BBC reported, "In a recent Twitter post, the North Koreans said the current administration in South Korea was 'a prostitute' of the US",[31] though this wording may be a poor translation into English. Among some of the content on the official website is an image of a US soldier being followed by two missiles, along with various other cartoons, pictures and text, with largely anti-US and anti-South Korean sentiment.[32] In September 2007 the .kp top-level domain was created. It contains websites connected to the North Korean government.

In addition to propaganda sites, there are numerous websites connected to commercial activity. In 2002, North Koreans, in collaboration with a South Korean company, started a gambling site targeting South Korean customers (online gambling being illegal in South Korea), but the site has since been closed down.[18] In late 2007, North Korea launched its first online shop, Chollima, in a joint venture with an unnamed Chinese company.[33] In 2013, The Pirate Bay claimed to be operating out of North Korea after legal challenges forced it out of Sweden. The move was later revealed to be a hoax.[34]

Hackers

South Korean No Cut News has reported that the North Korean government trains computer hackers in Kim Chaek University of Technology and Kim Il-sung University to earn money overseas.[35] A group of North Korean hackers based in Shenyang, China, developed and sold auto-programs (programs that allow player characters to earn experience and in-game currency while the player does none of the work) for an online game Lineage and a South Korea citizen was arrested in May 2011 for purchasing it.[36]

In December 2014, North Korea was accused of a hack attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment. From 19–21 December, North Korea experienced technical difficulties with Internet access. On December 22, North Korea suffered a complete Internet link failure, resulting in loss of Internet access from outside the country for which the United States is suspected.[15] On 23 December, nine hours after the outage, the country regained Internet access,[37] albeit "partial and potentially unstable with other websites still inaccessible."[38] On 22–24 December, North Korea experienced seven more Internet outages, including two on 23 December.[19] On 27 December, the country experienced an outage on Internet (the third time of the year) and a mobile network.[39] A similar outage, lasting for one and a half days, occurred in March 2013.[19]

South Korean Internet regulations

See also: Internet censorship in South Korea and North Korean websites banned in South Korea

South Korean Internet users must comply with Trade Laws with North Korea (Article 9 Section 2) in which one needs to have the Ministry of Unification's approval to contact North Koreans through their websites.[40]

IP address ranges

As of 2014 North Korea had one known block of 1,024 IPv4 addresses:[15]

• 175.45.176.0 – 175.45.179.255[41]

Despite North Korea's limited Internet access, the small pool of IP addresses has led to very conservative allocations. The Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, for example, had in 2012 just one IP address on the global Internet.[42]

North Korea's telecommunications ministry was previously also the registered user of 256 China Unicom addresses (210.52.109.0 - 210.52.109.255).[43] This pre-dated the activation of North Korea's own block.

In October 2017 it was reported that Russian ISP TransTelekom was routing traffic from North Korea as a second internet connection, together with China Unicom.[44]

See also

• Censorship in North Korea
• Naenara
• Telecommunications in North Korea

References

1. North Korea (Korea, Democratic People's Republic of) – Asia Internet History Projects. Sites.google.com (2012-09-26). Retrieved on 2013-03-20.
2. North Korea moves quietly onto the Internet. Computerworld (2010-06-10). Retrieved on 2013-03-20.
3. Matthew Sparkes (23 December 2014). "Internet in North Korea: everything you need to know". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
4. Williams, Martyn (22 February 2019). "Manbang IPTV Service in Depth". 38 North. The Henry L. Stimson Center. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
5. Whois lookup for IP netblock 175.45.176.0/22
6. He.net. "AS131279 Ryugyong-dong". he.net. Retrieved 2016-09-10.
7. Pagliery, Jose (December 22, 2014). "A peek into North Korea's Internet". CNN. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
8. "North Korea to offer mobile internet access". BBC. 22 February 2013. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
9. Caitlin Dewey (26 February 2013). "Instagrams from within North Korea lift the veil, but only slightly". Washington Post. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
10. "North Korea blocks access to Instagram". The Guardian. Associated Press. 23 June 2015. Retrieved 23 June 2015.
11. Lee, Jean H. (2011-07-25). "North Korea's 'Digital Revolution' Under Way". Huffington Post. Associated Press. Archived from the original on 2012-03-03. Retrieved 2019-01-03.
12. The new face of KCNA « North Korea Tech. Northkoreatech.org (2010-10-09). Retrieved on 2013-03-20.
13. North Korea opens up Internet for national anniversary. Computerworld (2010-10-09). Retrieved on 2013-03-20.
14. Cho (조), Min-jeong (민정) (2011-04-30). "北 웹사이트 접속 늘어…윈도XP 사용". Yonhap News (in Korean). Retrieved 2011-12-08.
15. Sanger, David E.; Perlroth, Nicole (December 22, 2014). "North Korea Loses Its Link to the Internet." The New York Times. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
16. Max Fisher (22 December 2014). "Yes, North Korea has the internet. Here's what it looks like". Vox. Retrieved 23 February 2015.
17. Tae-jun Kang (August 14, 2014). "Wi-Fi Access Sparks Housing Boom in Pyongyang." The Diplomat
18. Andrei Lankov (12 December 2007). "Surfing Net in North Korea". Korea Times. Retrieved 30 May 2016.
19. Satter, Raphael; Sullivan, Eileen (December 25, 2014). "North Korea outage a case study in online uncertainties." The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved December 25, 2014.
20. The Associated Press; Raphael Satter (24 December 2014). "Correction: NKorea-Mystery Outage Story". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 3 April 2015. Retrieved 3 January 2019.
21. "North Korea blocks Facebook, Twitter and YouTube". The Associated Press. 4 April 2016. Retrieved 4 April 2016.
22. Bryant, Matthew (2 January 2018). "NorthKoreaDNSLeak: Snapshot of North Korea's DNS data taken from zone transfers". Retrieved 3 January 2018 – via GitHub.
23. McGoogan, Cara (21 September 2016). "North Korea's internet revealed to have just 28 websites". The Telegraph. Retrieved 3 January 2018 – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
24. Kharpal, Arjun (21 September 2016). "North Korea accidentally lets world access its internet and it only has 28 websites". Retrieved 3 January 2018.
25. Ben-David, Anat; Amram, Adam (2018-03-29). "The Internet Archive and the socio-technical construction of historical facts". Internet Histories. 2 (1–2): 179–201. doi:10.1080/24701475.2018.1455412. ISSN 2470-1475.
26. "Russia Provides New Internet Connection to North Korea | 38 North: Informed Analysis of North Korea". 2017-10-02.
27. "North Korea gets a new Internet link from Russia". 2017-10-02.
28. Williams, Martyn (1 August 2018). "North Korea and the Internet: Building for the Future". 38 North. The Henry L. Stimson Center. Retrieved 6 August 2018.
29. "North Korea's baby steps for the Internet". PhysOrg.com. United Press International. 2005-08-30.
30. Yoon, Jong-Koo (2004-09-08). "Police Announce 43 Active Pro-North Korean Websites". The Dong-a Ilbo.
31. "North Korea creates Twitter and YouTube presence". BBC News. 2010-08-18.
32. 《우리민족끼리》홈페지 Archived August 24, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
33. Kelly Olson, "Elusive Web Site Offers N. Korean Goods", WTOPnews.com, February 4, 2008. Retrieved on April 27, 2008.
34. Rodriguez, Salvador (March 6, 2013). "Pirate Bay North Korea move was a hoax", The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved September 13, 2014.
35. Lee (이), Dae-hui (대희) (2011-08-05). 北 '엘리트 해커' 사이버 외화벌이. Nocut News (in Korean). Retrieved 2011-08-21.
36. Bae (배), Hye-rim (혜림) (2011-05-06). "北해커부대, '게임머니'S/W 팔아 외화벌이". Money Today (in Korean). Retrieved 2011-05-06.
37. Ford, Dana (December 23, 2014). "North Korea's Internet back up after disruption." CNN. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
38. "North Korea partially back online after internet collapse." BBC. 23 December 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
39. Slattery, Denis (December 28, 2014). "North Korea suffers nationwide Internet, 3G mobile network blackout." New York Daily News. Retrieved December 28, 2014.
40. Choe, Cheol (2010-04-08). "北 인터넷사이트에 '댓글' 달면 어떻게 될까 (What Happens If You Post 'Reply' On North Korean Website)". No Cut News (in Korean). Retrieved 2010-04-14.
41. "APNIC Whois Search (STAR-KP)". APNIC. Retrieved 30 May 2016.
42. One IP address for all of PUST « North Korea Tech. Northkoreatech.org (2012-08-20). Retrieved on 2013-03-20.
43. "APNIC - Query the APNIC Whois Database". www.apnic.net. Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre. 2017-05-11. Retrieved 2017-05-11. inetnum: 210.52.109.0 - 210.52.109.255 netname: KPTC
44. "Russian firm provides new internet connection to North Korea". Reuters. 2017-10-02. Dyn Research, which monitors international internet traffic flows, said it had seen Russian telecommunications company TransTeleCom routing North Korean traffic since about 0908 GMT on Sunday.

External links

• List of North Korean websites at North Korea Tech
• Silibank North Korea (in Japanese)
• Uriminzokkiri
• Uriminzokkiri's channel on YouTube (in Korean)