Internet access in North Korea has faced a significant outage recently, according to a monitoring group based in the UK. The exact cause of this disruption remains unclear, but it appears to be more of an internal issue rather than a cyberattack.
Junade Ali, a researcher who tracks North Korean internet activity, reported on Saturday that the country’s entire internet infrastructure was not visible on global monitoring systems. He noted that the outage was affecting all internet routes into North Korea, whether they come through China or Russia. Ali stated, “It’s hard to say if this is intentional or accidental – but it seems like this is internal rather than an attack.”
When Al Jazeera attempted to access some of North Korea’s government websites, including those for its Foreign Ministry and the Korea Central News Agency, both were found to be offline. Most of North Korea’s internet traffic is believed to pass through servers in China, making the country heavily reliant on external connections.
While it is difficult to determine how many North Koreans have access to the global internet, estimates suggest it is a very small fraction of the population, which is around 25 million. Most citizens use a highly controlled intranet known as Kwangmyong, which offers limited access to information.
North Korea has been the target of cyberattacks in the past. For instance, in January 2022, a hacker from the United States managed to take down all publicly visible North Korean websites for over a week through distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. Additionally, North Korean hackers have been linked to various cyber thefts, including a record-breaking $1.34 billion in cryptocurrency stolen in 2024, according to a report from a US blockchain analysis firm.
As the situation develops, it remains to be seen how this outage will affect North Korea’s already limited access to global information and communication.