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Internet access is available in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea), but only permitted with special authorization and primarily used for government purposes and by foreigners. The country has some broadband infrastructure, including fiber optic links between major institutions. However, 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.
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Service providers and access
There is one ISP providing Internet connection in North Korea: 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 December 21, 2009. 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. Nearly all of North Korea's Internet traffic is routed through China.
Since February 2013, foreigners have been able to access the internet using the 3G phone network provided by Koryolink.
Permission to access the Internet remains very tightly restricted; however, there has been a growing IT industry and gradually increasing access of the Internet within North Korea. In October 2010, the website of the Korean Central News Agency went live from a web server hosted in North Korea and accessible globally on a North Korean IP address, marking the country's first known direct connection to the Internet. 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 full Internet connectivity. As of December 2014, there are officially 1,024 internet protocol addresses in North Korea, though The New York Times journalists David E. Sanger and Nicole Perlroth believe that the actual number may be higher. The total amount of internet users is estimated at no more than a few thousand. The ones who can access the Internet without limits are claimed to be high-ranking officials, members of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and government ambassadors. Kim Jong-il was said to have loved "surfing the net". 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. According to Joo Seong-ha, a The Dong-a Ilbo journalist and a North Korean defector, as of 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, government has "strictly monitored the Internet usage." Many citizens of North Korea may be oblivious to the existence of the internet.
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 as their own to customers. Very little is known about the electronics industry in North Korea due to the government's isolation policies.
From April 2016, North Korea started to block Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and South Korean websites, due to "its concern with the spread of online information".
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 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.
North Korean websites
There are about 30 websites, such as Uriminzokkiri, run by the DPRK government. 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". 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", 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. 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. In late 2007, North Korea launched its first online shop, Chollima, in a joint venture with an unnamed Chinese company. 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.
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. 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.
In December 2014, North Korea was accused of a hack attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment. From December 19–21, 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. On December 23, nine hours after the outage, the country regained Internet access, albeit "partial and potentially unstable with other websites still inaccessible." On December 22–24, North Korea experienced seven more Internet outages, including two on December 23. On December 27, the country experienced an outage on Internet (the third time of the year) and a mobile network. A similar outage, lasting for one and a half days, occurred in March 2013.
South Korean Internet regulations
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.
IP address ranges
As of 2014 North Korea had one known block of 1,024 IPv4 addresses:
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.
North Korea's telecommunications ministry is also the registered user of 256 China Unicom addresses. This pre-dates the activation of North Korea's own block, but as of 2014 it is still current: