Government restrictions on online content and
connectivity render the Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea (North Korea) a virtual “black
hole” in cyberspace.
1 While shunning Internet
accessibility and functionality, Pyongyang has
opted for an isolated, domestic intranet consisting of approximately thirty Web sites
approved by the government and available
only to a privileged minority.
Background
The North Korean regime does maintain a nominal presence on the World Wide Web through
sites promoting its ideology and agenda. As with
print and broadcast media, these sites largely
extol the nation’s leader Kim Jong Il, his father
Kim Il Sung, and the Juche Idea of national “selfreliance,” while espousing the country’s stance
on reunification of the Korean Peninsula. Unlike
other media, however, North Korean Web sites lie
at some distance from Pyongyang. Because the
state lacks an active top-level domain (TLD), it
relies on servers in China, Japan, Germany, and
even Texas to host its official pages, including
www.korea-dpr.com (North Korea’s Web page)
and www.kcna.co.jp (the home page of the staterun Korean Central News Agency). North Korea
has asked repeatedly for the country code TLD
“.kp”, but the U.S.-based Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has yet
to grant the request.
Internet and Intranet in North Korea
The community of Internet users in North Korea
consists almost entirely of elites and foreigners. A
select few, including members of Kim Jung Il’s
inner circle, enjoy unfiltered Internet access via
satellite link to servers in Germany, thanks to a
2004 joint venture between Pyongyang’s Korea
Computer Center (KCC) and its Berlin-based
counterpart KCC Europe. Most Internet users,
however, are dependent upon Chinese service
providers for connectivity—and thus are subject
to China’s filtering regime. For years, these
providers could be reached only via international
dialup from exclusive hotels in Pyongyang. In
2002, optical cable connections between the
North Korean capital and Shanghai became
operational at the Internet PC Room—the first
Internet café in the country. Still, few North
Koreans can afford the hourly fee of USD10,
effectively limiting use of the PC Room to foreign
diplomats, businesspeople, journalists, and
tourists.
A growing segment of the North Korean
population is gaining access to Chinese networks via Web-enabled mobile phones smuggled in from China and sold on the black market. 2
However, for most North Koreans, access to
online content is exceedingly rare and limited to
the few dozen Web sites that comprise
Kwangmyong, the nation’s domestic intranet.
North Korea
ONI did not carry out empirical testing for Internet filtering in North Korea for this report.
connectivity render the Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea (North Korea) a virtual “black
hole” in cyberspace.
1 While shunning Internet
accessibility and functionality, Pyongyang has
opted for an isolated, domestic intranet consisting of approximately thirty Web sites
approved by the government and available
only to a privileged minority.
Background
The North Korean regime does maintain a nominal presence on the World Wide Web through
sites promoting its ideology and agenda. As with
print and broadcast media, these sites largely
extol the nation’s leader Kim Jong Il, his father
Kim Il Sung, and the Juche Idea of national “selfreliance,” while espousing the country’s stance
on reunification of the Korean Peninsula. Unlike
other media, however, North Korean Web sites lie
at some distance from Pyongyang. Because the
state lacks an active top-level domain (TLD), it
relies on servers in China, Japan, Germany, and
even Texas to host its official pages, including
www.korea-dpr.com (North Korea’s Web page)
and www.kcna.co.jp (the home page of the staterun Korean Central News Agency). North Korea
has asked repeatedly for the country code TLD
“.kp”, but the U.S.-based Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has yet
to grant the request.
Internet and Intranet in North Korea
The community of Internet users in North Korea
consists almost entirely of elites and foreigners. A
select few, including members of Kim Jung Il’s
inner circle, enjoy unfiltered Internet access via
satellite link to servers in Germany, thanks to a
2004 joint venture between Pyongyang’s Korea
Computer Center (KCC) and its Berlin-based
counterpart KCC Europe. Most Internet users,
however, are dependent upon Chinese service
providers for connectivity—and thus are subject
to China’s filtering regime. For years, these
providers could be reached only via international
dialup from exclusive hotels in Pyongyang. In
2002, optical cable connections between the
North Korean capital and Shanghai became
operational at the Internet PC Room—the first
Internet café in the country. Still, few North
Koreans can afford the hourly fee of USD10,
effectively limiting use of the PC Room to foreign
diplomats, businesspeople, journalists, and
tourists.
A growing segment of the North Korean
population is gaining access to Chinese networks via Web-enabled mobile phones smuggled in from China and sold on the black market. 2
However, for most North Koreans, access to
online content is exceedingly rare and limited to
the few dozen Web sites that comprise
Kwangmyong, the nation’s domestic intranet.
North Korea
ONI did not carry out empirical testing for Internet filtering in North Korea for this report.