North Korea offline for 9 hours after mysterious outage
Researcher Junade Ali, who tracks North Korea’s online activity, reported on Saturday that the country’s entire internet network was untraceable on platforms that observe global internet traffic.
North Korea faced a significant internet disruption, according to a UK-based monitoring expert, though the cause appears to be internal rather than linked to an external cyberattack.
Researcher Junade Ali, who tracks North Korea’s online activity, reported on Saturday that the country’s entire internet network was untraceable on platforms that observe global internet traffic.
"A significant outage is currently impacting all of North Korea’s internet connections, whether routed through China or Russia," said Junade Ali.
He added, "It's unclear whether this was done intentionally or by mistake, but the disruption seems to stem from within the country, rather than from an external cyberattack."
North Korea operates a few government-run websites accessible from outside the country, including those for the Foreign Ministry and the state-run Korea Central News Agency (KCNA).
These sites were unreachable on Saturday morning, according to Al Jazeera.
Most of North Korea’s internet traffic is believed to be routed through servers in China.
While it's unclear how many North Koreans have unrestricted access to the global internet, estimates suggest it’s only a tiny fraction of the country’s 25 million people.
Instead, citizens typically use a tightly controlled domestic intranet system known as Kwangmyong, as global internet access remains heavily restricted by the state.
North Korea has experienced cyberattacks before notably in January 2022, when U.S.-based hacker Alejandro Caceres took down every publicly accessible North Korean website using a DDoS attack, keeping them offline for over a week.
The country under the leadership of third-generation ruler Kim Jong Un, has faced accusations from both U.S. and U.N. officials of running state-backed hacking units involved in a growing wave of global cyber theft.
According to a December report by U.S.-based blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, North Korean hackers broke records in 2024, stealing over $1.34 billion in cryptocurrency across 47 separate cyberattacks.
