Kwangmyong () is a
North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...
n "
walled garden
A walled garden is a garden enclosed by high walls, especially when this is done for horticultural rather than security purposes, although originally all gardens may have been enclosed for protection from animal or human intruders. In temperate ...
"
national intranet
A national intranet is an Internet protocol-based walled garden network maintained by a nation state as a national substitute for the global Internet, with the aim of controlling and monitoring the communications of its inhabitants, as well as r ...
service
opened in the early 2000s. The Kwangmyong intranet system stands in contrast to the
global Internet in North Korea, which is available to fewer people in the country.
The network uses
domain name
A domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control within the Internet. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services and more. As ...
s under the
.kp
.kp is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). It was created on 24 September 2007.
History
The DPRK applied for the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) in 2004. ICANN, ...
top level domain that are not usually accessible from the global Internet.
As of 2016 the network uses
IPv4 addresses reserved for
private network
In Internet networking, a private network is a computer network that uses a private address space of IP addresses. These addresses are commonly used for local area networks (LANs) in residential, office, and enterprise environments. Both the IP ...
s in the 10.0.0.0/8 range, also known as 24-bit block as defined in
RFC 1918.
North Koreans often find it more convenient to access sites by their
IP address
An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.. Updated by . An IP address serves two main functions: network interface ident ...
rather than by domain name using Latin characters.
Like the global
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
, the network hosts content accessible with
web browser
A web browser is application software for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's screen. Browsers are used o ...
s, and provides an internal
web search engine
A search engine is a software system designed to carry out web searches. They search the World Wide Web in a systematic way for particular information specified in a textual web search query. The search results are generally presented in a ...
. It also provides
email
Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" mean ...
services and
news group
A Usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from users in different locations using the Internet. They are discussion groups and are not devoted to publishing news. Newsgroups are technically distinct ...
s.
The intranet is managed by the
Korea Computer Center __NOTOC__
The Korea Computer Center (KCC) is the North Korean government information technology research center. It was founded on 24 October 1990. KCC, which administered the .kp country code top-level domain until 2011, employs more than 1,000 p ...
.
History
The first website in North Korea, the
Naenara
Naenara () is the official web portal of the North Korean government. It was the first website in North Korea, and was created in 1996. The portal's categories include politics, tourism, music, foreign trade, arts, press, information technology ...
web portal, was made in 1996.
Efforts to establish the Kwangmyong network on a national scale began as early as 1997, with some development of intranet services in the
Rajin-Sonbong Economic Special Zone
The Rason Special Economic Zone, earlier called the Rajin-Sonbong Economic Special Zone, was established in the early 1990s by the North Korean government near Rason to promote economic growth through foreign investment. It is similar to the Speci ...
as early as 1995. The intranet was originally developed by the "Central Scientific and Technological Information Agency".
The national Kwangmyong intranet was first in service during the early 2000s.
North Korea's first email provider was
Sili Bank, established in 2001.
Prior to 2006, North Koreans would use intranet
chat room
The term chat room, or chatroom (and sometimes group chat; abbreviated as GC), is primarily used to describe any form of synchronous conferencing, occasionally even asynchronous conferencing. The term can thus mean any technology, ranging from ...
s to organize meetups to play sports, such as basketball. Following an incident where around 300 North Korean intranet users organized a
flash mob
A flash mob (or flashmob) is a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform for a brief time, then quickly disperse, often for the purposes of entertainment, satire, and artistic expression. Flash mobs may be organized via t ...
at the
Pyongyang Gymnasium, all chat rooms were removed from the North Korean intranet.
Regional chat rooms reportedly made a return in 2015.
In 2013,
Anonymous-affiliated hackers claimed to have broken into North Korea's intranet. However, evidence for the claim was lacking.
A
video conferencing
Videotelephony, also known as videoconferencing and video teleconferencing, is the two-way or multipoint reception and transmission of audio signal, audio and video signals by people in different locations for Real-time, real time communication. ...
system called Rakwon was developed at
Kim Il-sung University
Kim Il-sung University, founded on 1 October 1946, is the first university built in North Korea. It is located on a campus in Pyongyang, the nation's capital. Along with the main academic buildings, the campus contains 10 separate offices, 50 l ...
in 2010. During the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
, it became much more popular for remote meetings and appeared regularly on news bulletins.
Telemedicine and remote education systems have been developed.
Content
As of 2014, the Kwangmyong network was estimated to have between about 1,000 and 5,500 websites.
''
Excélsior
''Excélsior'' is a daily newspaper in Mexico City. It is the second oldest paper in the city after '' El Universal'', printing its first issue on March 18, 1917.
History
''Excélsior'' was founded by Rafael Alducin and first published in Mexic ...
'' and Max Fisher of
''Vox'' estimated the number was about 5,000.
The Kwangmyong network is composed of many websites and services. Some sites host political and economic propaganda. Scientific and cultural information and fields of knowledge among other topics can be found elsewhere.
Over 30 million mostly scientific or technical documents were reportedly posted to the intranet as of 2007.
Websites of various
North Korean government agencies including provincial government, cultural institutions, major universities and libraries, some local schools, and some of the major industrial and commercial organizations are accessible to users.
The network also contains (mostly science-related) websites from the open Internet that are downloaded, reviewed and censored.
An internal emailing service is available on the Kwangmyong network.
A search engine is in use for browsing the Kwangmyong intranet.
The search engine reportedly goes by the name "''Naenara''", which means "Our Country".
A Facebook-like
social networking service in use by professors and university students existed as of 2013, and was used to post birthday messages.
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
reported in 2017 that a "North Korean equivalent to Facebook" exists.
Message boards
An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are often longer than one line of text, and are at least temporar ...
are known to exist on the network.
An
IPTV
Internet Protocol television (IPTV) is the delivery of television content over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. This is in contrast to delivery through traditional terrestrial, satellite, and cable television formats. Unlike downloaded med ...
video-streaming service called ''
Manbang'' (만방), Korean for "Everyone", was reportedly launched in August 2016, though the name ''Manbang'' appeared in North Korean technology as early as 2013. It is accessed by a
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wav ...
-enabled set-top box. It can be accessed through
smartphone
A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...
s and tablet computers.
Reportedly the Kwangmyong has been used for
online dating.
Chat rooms were used by North Koreans interested in sports until 2006, when the chat rooms were removed.
Regional chat rooms were added in 2015.
Domestic state news services are available on the network, such as the
Korean Central News Agency
The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) is the state news agency of North Korea. The agency portrays the views of the North Korean government for both domestic and foreign consumption. It was established on December 5, 1946 and now features onli ...
, ''
Rodong Sinmun
''Rodong Sinmun'' (; ) is a North Korean newspaper that serves as the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea. It was first published on November 1, 1945, as ''Chŏngro'' (), serving as a communication channel ...
,'' and
Voice of Korea
Voice of Korea () is the international broadcasting service of North Korea. It broadcasts primarily information in Chinese, Spanish, German, English, French, Russian, Japanese and Arabic. Until 2002 it was known as Radio Pyongyang. The inter ...
.
Scientific research websites of academic and scholarly works devoted to the network are served through web-based academic exchanges and information sharing such as the Academy of Sciences for Science and Technology () and the Academy of Sciences for Medical Science (). An electronic library is present on the network, which also hosts
video lectures for various topics.
Some
e-commerce
E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain managem ...
and
e-banking
Online banking, also known as internet banking, web banking or home banking, is an electronic payment system that enables customers of a bank or other financial institution to conduct a range of financial transactions through the financial insti ...
websites exist on the network.
Some video games also exist on the intranet.
One of the games available on the Kwangmyong is
Korean chess
''Janggi'' (including romanizations ''changgi'' and ''jangki''), sometimes called Korean chess, is a strategy board game popular on the Korean Peninsula. The game was derived from xiangqi (Chinese chess), and is very similar to it, including t ...
.
Phones provide access to
e-book
An ebook (short for electronic book), also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Alt ...
s and
mobile payment
A mobile payment, also referred to as mobile money, mobile money transfer and mobile wallet, is any of various payment processing services operated under financial regulations and performed from or via a mobile device, as the cardinal class of ...
. Some cultural websites are among the few .kp domain websites which have been openly accessible to foreigners through the global Internet, such as at least one culinary site and one displaying the country's film industry.
Other services in use on the intranet include dictionaries,
telehealth
Telehealth is the distribution of health-related services and information via electronic information and telecommunication technologies. It allows long-distance patient and clinician contact, care, advice, reminders, education, intervention, mon ...
, and
text messaging
Text messaging, or texting, is the act of composing and sending electronic messages, typically consisting of alphabetic and numeric characters, between two or more users of mobile devices, desktops/laptops, or another type of compatible comput ...
services.
Reportedly a travel website allowed North Koreans to plan vacations within the country.
Network access
Kwangmyong is designed to be accessible only from within North Korea.
Access is available within major cities and counties, as well as universities and major industrial and commercial organizations.
For example, a library at the
Pyongyang Sci-Tech Complex
The DPRK Sci-Tech Complex () is a science and technology centre housed in a large atom-shaped building located on Ssuk Island in Pyongyang, accessed by the Chungsong Bridge. It was completed in 2015. According to KBS World, it then had over 100, ...
provides access to the intranet, and is reportedly used by different types of people, including factory workers, children and researchers for various purposes.
About 3,000 computer terminals are usable there. The intranet is also accessible from another library at the
Grand People's Study House
The Grand People's Study House is the central library located in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang. The building is situated on Kim Il-sung Square by the banks of the Taedong River.
Features
The Study House was constructed in a traditiona ...
.
Sites in the network are commonly accessed using
24-bit block private IPv4 addresses.
The first "
internet café
An Internet café, also known as a cybercafé, is a café (or a convenience store or a fully dedicated Internet access business) that provides the use of computers with high bandwidth Internet access on the payment of a fee. Usage is generall ...
" (or "intranet cafe") in North Korea was opened in
Pyongyang
Pyongyang (, , ) is the capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is known as the "Capital of the Revolution". Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. According to the 2008 populat ...
, where one may access the country's intranet services. It opened in 2002, near
Kwangbok station, and has about 100 computers.
It was opened by a
Seoul
Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 of ...
company named Hoonnet, and a North Korean company named Jangsaeng General Trade Company.
These cafes, also known as "PC rooms" or "Information Technology Stores", began appearing across North Korea as soon as the early 2000s, and can be accessed for a fee.
The cafes provide other paid services as well, such as
computing
Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and development of both hardware and software. Computing has scientific, ...
classes. As of 2005, the price for accessing these services was considered prohibitively expensive for the average North Korean citizen, according to ''
Daily NK
''Daily NK'' is an online newspaper based in Seoul, South Korea, where it reports on various aspects of North Korean society from information obtained from inside and outside of North Korea via a network of informants. North Korea is ranked 179 ...
''.
The process of installing an approved personal computer in North Korean homes which would be capable of accessing the intranet requires inspection and authorization from local government authorities.
As of 2010, an estimated 200,000 such personal computers were in Pyongyang private homes, and access to the Kwangmyong is more common among people in cities compared to those in rural areas.
In addition to access from personal computers, the national intranet may be accessed from mobile devices.
Kwangmyong has 24-hour unlimited access by
dial-up telephone line.
, a number of
Android-based
tablet computer
A tablet computer, commonly shortened to tablet, is a mobile device, typically with a mobile operating system and touchscreen display processing circuitry, and a rechargeable battery in a single, thin and flat package. Tablets, being com ...
products, including the
Samjiyon tablet computer
The Samjiyon tablet computer () is a North Korean Android tablet computer developed by the Multimedia Technology Research Institute of the Korea Computer Center. It is the first North Korean tablet able to receive television broadcasts.2013/08/02 ...
, can be purchased in North Korea that give access to Kwangmyong. A 2017 estimate put the number of mobile phones in North Korea at between 2.5 and 3 million.
In 2020, another estimate put the number of mobile phone users at 4.5 million. In recent years, these have been the more common way for North Koreans to access websites on the Kwangmyong intranet. Access to the global Internet or phone numbers outside of North Korea is not permitted aside from highest-ranked government officials and certain employees of
Korea Computer Center __NOTOC__
The Korea Computer Center (KCC) is the North Korean government information technology research center. It was founded on 24 October 1990. KCC, which administered the .kp country code top-level domain until 2011, employs more than 1,000 p ...
.
Like personal computers, phones must be approved by authorities.
According to
Radio Free Asia, the government began requiring cell phone users to install surveillance software to access the intranet.
In 2018, North Korea unveiled a new Wi-Fi service called Mirae ("Future"), which allowed mobile devices to access the intranet network in Pyongyang.
Languages
The network uses
Korean
Korean may refer to:
People and culture
* Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula
* Korean cuisine
* Korean culture
* Korean language
**Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl
**Korean dialects and the Jeju language
** ...
as the main interface language, though the government's web portal (''Naenara''), is multilingual.
There is a dictionary available to users for translation between Korean and
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
,
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
,
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
,
French,
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
and
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
, with a database containing at least 1,700,000 words, to assist users who may not be familiar with foreign languages.
Different websites on the intranet may be available in different sets of languages. A website that sells postage stamps is available in Korean, English, and Chinese.
The writings of the
Kim family are available in Korean, Japanese, Russian, and Chinese.
Information control
Kwangmyong is designed to be used only within North Korea, and is referred to as an
intranet.
Kwangmyong prevents domestic users within North Korea from freely accessing foreign content or information and typically prevents foreigners from accessing domestic content.
According to ''
Daily NK
''Daily NK'' is an online newspaper based in Seoul, South Korea, where it reports on various aspects of North Korean society from information obtained from inside and outside of North Korea via a network of informants. North Korea is ranked 179 ...
'', it "prevents the leak of classified data" and "functions as a form of information censorship, preventing undesirable information from being accessed". Thus, sensitive topics and information are unlikely to surface on Kwangmyong due to the absence of a link to the outside world and the censorship that occurs. Kwangmyong is maintained and monitored by government-related entities.
However, large amounts of material from the global Internet ends up on Kwangmyong, following processing.
The operating systems of government-approved phones reject access to any applications that are not also approved by the government.
While foreigners in North Korea are generally not allowed to access Kwangmyong, they may have access to the global Internet.
For security reasons networks with Internet and intranet access are
air gapped so that computers with Internet access are not housed in the same location as computers with Kwangmyong access.
Given that there is no direct connection to the outside Internet, unwanted information cannot enter the network. Information is filtered and processed by government agencies before being hosted on the North Korean Intranet.
Myanmar
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
and
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
also use a similar network system that is separated from the rest of the Internet, and
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
has been reported as having future plans to implement such a network, though it is claimed that it would work alongside the
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
and would not replace it.
[Christopher Rhoads and Farnaz Fassihi, May 28, 2011]
Iran Vows to Unplug Internet
Wall Street Journal
List of sites
Below is a list of sites that were listed on Kwangmyong's website portal in 2016.
Below is a list of sites that are not directly listed on www.sciteco.aca.kp (the Kwangmyong website portal) in 2016 and sites that have been confirmed to have been created on Kwangmyong after 2016.
See also
*
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 also by foreigners. The country has some broadband infrastructure, including fiber optic links betwe ...
*
Internet censorship in North Korea
*
Red Star OS
Red Star OS () is a North Korean Linux distribution, with development first starting in 1998 at the Korea Computer Center (KCC). Prior to its release, computers in North Korea typically used Red Hat Linux and later switched to a modified Windows ...
References
External links
List of sites on Kwangmyongat
North Korea Tech
North Korea Tech is a US-based blog authored by British journalist Martyn Williams which covers consumer electronics and technology developments in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. It was established in 2010. North Korea Tech is based in ...
Video of surfing on Kwangmyongat
Yle
Yleisradio Oy ( Finnish, literally "General Radio Ltd." or "General Broadcast Ltd."; abbr. Yle ; sv, Rundradion Ab, italics=no), translated to English as the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is Finland's national public broadcasting company, found ...
Areena
Kwangmyong computer networkat North Korea Economy Watch
at Institute for Corean-American Studies
Hermit Surfers of P'yongyangat
Defense Technical Information Center
Further reading
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
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*
{{Asia topic, Internet in
Internet in North Korea
Internet censorship
Mass surveillance
Internet properties established in 2000
2000 establishments in Korea
Wide area networks
Telecommunications companies of North Korea