Kwangmyong (network)

A computer room equipped with access to Kwangmyong at the Grand People's Study House in Pyongyang

Kwangmyong (Chosŏn'gŭl: 광명; hancha: 光明; English: Bright) is a North Korean "walled garden" national intranet opened in 2000. It may be accessed by web browsers, incorporates email services, news groups, and an internal web search engine. The network uses a DNS System of its own to use domain names that are not used on the public internet.

In North Korea, only a small number of government-authorized persons are allowed to use the global Internet, so Kwangmyong is the only computer network available to common people. It is a free service for public use.

Content

• Information such as political, economic, scientific, cultural and other fields of knowledge.
• Domestic news service.
• A mailing service similar in function to that of email.
• A social network.
• University scientific research areas of academic and scholarly works devoted to the network through web-based academic exchanges and information sharing.
  • Academy of Sciences for Science and Technology (Chosongul: 과학기술전시관 Hancha: 科學技術展示館)
  • Academy of Sciences for Medical Science (Chosongul: 의학과학정보센터)
• Websites of various government agencies, provincial government, cultural institutions, universities, as well as some of the major industrial and commercial organizations.
• Censored websites from the Internet (mostly science-related). Upon a request, whole websites may be downloaded from the Internet, undergo review and censorship, and be published on Kwangmyong.
• An electronic library (Chosongul: 전자도서열람).
• Some e-commerce by commercial organizations.

As of 2014, Kwangmyong was estimated to have between 1,000 and 5,500 websites.

Network access

Kwangmyong is only accessible from within North Korea. Access is available within major cities and counties, as well as universities and major industrial and commercial organizations.

Kwangmyong has 24-hour unlimited access by dial-up telephone line. As of 2013, a number of Android based tablet computer products, including the Samjiyon tablet computer, can be purchased in North Korea that give access to Kwangmyong.

Languages

The network uses Korean as the main interface language, and is maintained by more than 2,000 language experts, according to official information, in expanding services in Russian, Chinese, English, French, German and Japanese, in which there is a real-time, online translation service for the seven languages, with a database containing over 2,000,000 words, to assist users who may not be familiar with foreign languages.

Information control

Kwangmyong is designed to be used only within North Korea, and referred to as an "intranet". Kwangmyong prevents domestic users within North Korea to access foreign content or information and prevents the leakages of classified data. It functions as a form of information censorship, preventing undesirable information from being accessed. Thus, sensitive topics and information are unlikely to surface on Kwangmyong due to the absence of a link to the outside world and the censorship that occurs. Kwangmyong is maintained by government-related entities. However, large amounts of material from the Internet end up on Kwangmyong, following processing.

Given that there is no direct connection to the outside Internet, unwanted information cannot enter the network. Information is filtered and processed by government agencies before being hosted on the North Korean Intranet. Burma and Cuba also use a similar network system that is separated from the rest of the Internet, and Iran has been reported as having future plans to implement such a network.

See also

• Internet in North Korea

External links

• A brief list of some intranet sites at North Korea Tech
• BBC: Sampling North Korea's version of the internet - includes video
• North Korea and the Internet - Economist
• Kwangmyong computer network
• Digital Divide on the Korean Peninsula
• Hermit Surfers of P'yongyang，CIA