North Korean web surfers left high and dry

With fewer than 30 sites from which to choose, netizens are hardly spoilt for choice

The full expanse of North Korea’s own internet was revealed on Wednesday — all 28 websites of it. The list of websites was gathered after an anonymous US-based software engineer accessed the reclusive nation’s main domain name system (DNS) server by sending frequent, automated requests.

DNS servers are usually configured to reject such requests, but on one occasion — thought to be a result of human error — the request was granted.

The full list was posted on the Reddit online news forum.

While these websites were already publicly viewable outside North Korea, it is the first time a full list of them has been compiled and published.

It is well known that very few people inside North Korea have access to the internet. According to the Internet World Stats website, the country has about 14,000 known web users, or about 0.05% of the population.

Those who can get online are typically restricted to the country’s own network, with fewer still granted access to the worldwide web. The “ordinary” surfer in North Korea must make do with fewer than 30 sites.

Of these, there are several news websites which typically trumpet the day-to-day activities of leader Kim Jong-un and otherwise churn out sternly worded op-eds and unfailingly positive domestic affairs, with last week’s nuclear bomb test the universal leading story.

These sites are mostly in Korean language, although online newspapers Rodong (rodong.rep.kp) and Naenara (naenara.com.kp), and state news agency KCNA (kcna.kp) carry English content, and are also the most stable.

The rest tend to take several refreshes to load successfully, and some fail to load no matter how many times you try. Of course, this could well be a result of the sudden spike in visitor numbers.

There is a website dedicated to North Korean food (cooks.org.kp), including a review of a Pyongyang dog meat restaurant, one about the local film industry (korfilm.com.kp), several tourism sites and miscellaneous others such as banks, insurance firms and charities.

The sites are unsophisticated in their design and flawed in their functionality. Even on the official website of national airline Air Koryo (airkoryo.com.kp) it appears nigh-on impossible to actually book a flight.

While the list makes for an interesting — if sometimes frustrating — browse, it tells us nothing new, apart from how limited North Korea’s reach is into the worldwide web.