(KCTV file screengrab)
Russian news agency ITAR-TASS reported on 13 March (Wednesday) that the DPRK was blocked from accessing the Internet. The several thousand DPRK citizens with dedicated connections experienced trouble accessing the Internet and a number of DPRK websites (such as KCNA the Korea Sports Foundation) on the (.kp) top-level domain [IDNccTLD] could be neither be accessed nor viewed. For several hours on 13 March, some state media sites on the (.kp) domain were viewable. On 11 March (Monday) the website for the Korean Workers’ Party [KWP] daily newspaper Rodong Sinmun had provided a message in Korean that said there were problems with its server. ITAR-TASS, which maintains a correspondent in Pyongyang, reported: “Access to the Internet was blocked in North Korea on Wednesday. According to an informed source, Internet resources of the country have come under a powerful hacker attack from abroad.”
Filed under: Central Committee, communications, critical infrastructure, cyber warfare, DPRK Cabinet, DPRK External Relations, Education Commission, Guard Command, KCNA, Korean Workers' Party (KWP), military security command [msc], Ministry of Education, Ministry of Higher Education, ministry of people's security, Ministry of Post and Telecom, Ministry of State Security, National Defense Commission (NDC), NDC Administration Department, Operations Department, other topics, Reconnaissance Bureau, State Academy of Sciences