North Korea
Overview
The North Korean media environment is among the most strictly controlled and monitored in the world. The North Korean constitution provides for freedom of speech and the press, but in practice the government prohibits speech that could be seen as criticizing the government and its leaders. The general population has access only to an Intranet set up by the government and cannot connect to the global Internet.
Access
North Korea’s general population has access only to an Intranet set up by the government and cannot connect to the global Internet. A few of North Korea’s government elite are permitted to have Internet access via a link to China. For a short time, North Korea did allow tourists staying at one hotel in Pyongyang access to 3G Internet during a visit by the American basketball player Dennis Rodman and an HBO documentary crew, but the connection was revoked after Rodman left the country. Approximately 1 million people in North Korea have mobile phones, but these devices are not connected to the Internet. However, North Koreans living near the border with China may sometimes have the illegal option of connecting to the Chinese mobile network and proximity with China has allowed for the development of a "sneakernet" by which people exchange physical media across the Chinese border rather than across a network.
Control
North Korea, unlike other countries that censor or filter their Internet, has opted to remain largely disconnected from the global Internet. It is difficult to determine whether the few North Koreans who can access the global Internet experience content censorship or filtering, but given that those connections run through a link with China, it is likely they are at least subject to the censored experience of Chinese Internet users. Most citizens are only allowed access to North Korea’s intranet, called Kwangmyong, which can be accessed by dial-up telephone line, though a few elite have access to the global Internet via a satellite link with Germany. The Intranet is navigable by web browsers, deploys email services, shares news groups, and contains an internal web search engine. Content on the intranet is regulated and activity is surveilled by the North Korean government. For example, the BBC reported that when leader Kim Jong-un is mentioned, his name is automatically displayed in a larger font. Most computers in North Korea run the “Red Star” operating system, commissioned and designed by the government, as well as an adapted version of the Firefox browser. The intranet is maintained by government entities and information distributed on the network is filtered and processed by government agencies before being hosted. Large amounts of material from the global Internet are copied to Kwangmyong after they have been processed and filtered.
Activity
North Korea only has a limited presence on the Internet with only a handful of sites using their national .kp domain. The North Korean government has also established a channel on YouTube, a Facebook account, and a Twitter account. Sites run by the North Korean government host the Worker's Party of Korea daily, North Korean television, movies, music, and other media used to promote the agenda and ideology of the North Korean government.
North Korea’s general population has access only to an Intranet set up by the government and cannot connect to the global Internet. A few of North Korea’s government elite are permitted to have Internet access via a link to China. For a short time, North Korea did allow tourists staying at one hotel in Pyongyang access to 3G Internet during a visit by the American basketball player Dennis Rodman and an HBO documentary crew, but the connection was revoked after Rodman left the country. Approximately 1 million people in North Korea have mobile phones, but these devices are not connected to the Internet. However, North Koreans living near the border with China may sometimes have the illegal option of connecting to the Chinese mobile network and proximity with China has allowed for the development of a "sneakernet" by which people exchange physical media across the Chinese border rather than across a network.
North Korea, unlike other countries that censor or filter their Internet, has opted to remain largely disconnected from the global Internet. It is difficult to determine whether the few North Koreans who can access the global Internet experience content censorship or filtering, but given that those connections run through a link with China, it is likely they are at least subject to the censored experience of Chinese Internet users. Most citizens are only allowed access to North Korea’s intranet, called Kwangmyong, which can be accessed by dial-up telephone line, though a few elite have access to the global Internet via a satellite link with Germany. The Intranet is navigable by web browsers, deploys email services, shares news groups, and contains an internal web search engine. Content on the intranet is regulated and activity is surveilled by the North Korean government. For example, the BBC reported that when leader Kim Jong-un is mentioned, his name is automatically displayed in a larger font. Most computers in North Korea run the “Red Star” operating system, commissioned and designed by the government, as well as an adapted version of the Firefox browser. The intranet is maintained by government entities and information distributed on the network is filtered and processed by government agencies before being hosted. Large amounts of material from the global Internet are copied to Kwangmyong after they have been processed and filtered.
North Korea only has a limited presence on the Internet with only a handful of sites using their national .kp domain. The North Korean government has also established a channel on YouTube, a Facebook account, and a Twitter account. Sites run by the North Korean government host the Worker's Party of Korea daily, North Korean television, movies, music, and other media used to promote the agenda and ideology of the North Korean government.