• Population: 22,541,000
  • Internet users: unknown
  • Average charge for 20 hours of connection: unknown
  • DAI*: unknown
  • Situation**: serious

The country is almost totally cut off from the Internet. In early 2004, the authorities announced creation of an rudimentary Internet facility for the restricted use of a few thousand people.

Kim Jong-il, leader of the world's most isolated country, says there are three kinds of fools in the 21st century - people who smoke, people who don't like music and people who don't know how to use a computer. He has also said developing computers is a priority for the country, which is one of the world's poorest.

About 100 computer engineers graduate each year in North Korea. The South Korean firm Samsung uses this cheap labour but complains about the difficulty of working with its North Korean partners. E-mail is still banned in the country so messages have to be sent to Beijing, where they are put on a CD-Rom and then sent through the post to North Korea.

The beginnings of Internet service

The Internet is only available to a very tiny elite of no more than a few hundred people using technical facilities in China. The government has total control of the media and refuses to open the country up to the Internet for fear of being overwhelmed by a flood of material to monitor.

However, the authorities announced the launch of a first local version of the Internet in mid-February 2004, to mark Kim Jong-il's birthday. After the Cuban example, access is to be limited to those with an international phone line, meaning only a small group of hand-picked people, no more than a few thousand in the first few years. They will also only have access to e-mail, with the luckiest ones allowed to use an Intranet comprising websites chosen by the regime.

A small firm, KCC Europe, run by a German businessman, Jan Holtermann, was given the job of setting up the Intranet and has reportedly spent 700,000 euros on it. To get round laws banning transfer of sensitive technology to the Pyongyang regime, all data will be kept on servers based in Germany and sent by satellite to North Korean Internet users.

The country does not have a domain name yet. The US allocation body ICANN has not yet authorised ".kp" which North Korea has asked for.

Dozens of propaganda sites

About 30 websites praise the regime, including www.uriminzokkiri.com, which has photos and adoring material about Kim Jong-il and his father Kim Il-sung. Since there is so little information available about the country, these sites are closely watched by foreign governments and especially the South Korean police.

Links

* The DAI (Digital Access Index) has been devised by the International Telecommunications Union to measure the access of a country's inhabitants to information and communication technology. It ranges from 0 (none at all) to 1 (complete access).

** Assessment of the situation in each country (good, middling, difficult, serious) is based on murders, imprisonment or harassment of cyber-dissidents or journalists, censorship of news sites, existence of independent news sites, existence of independent ISPs and deliberately high connection charges.

Disclaimer:

This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.