Major Media Outlets and Websites Experience Large-Scale Access Disruptions
Restored Within Half a Day
Major North Korean websites experienced disruptions on the morning of June 7, becoming inaccessible for unknown reasons, but were restored within half a day.
Kim Jong Un meets with Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev. Footage from Korean Central TV, Yonhap News Agency
On this day, official North Korean media such as the Korean Central News Agency and Rodong Sinmun, as well as websites for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Air Koryo, were all inaccessible in large numbers during the morning. However, as of the afternoon, access to North Korean websites had returned to normal and is now stable.
These websites showed instability throughout the morning, sometimes opening temporarily before becoming inaccessible again. When using a virtual private network (VPN) to connect via Europe or other countries, access was possible at times but would soon be interrupted.
Reuters, citing a North Korea internet monitoring researcher based in the United Kingdom, reported that the internet disruptions on this day affected all access routes to North Korea and that the cause was more likely to be an internal issue rather than a cyberattack.
Cybersecurity researcher Junade Ali explained, "North Korea's entire internet infrastructure is not appearing on systems that monitor internet activity." He added, "It is difficult to say whether this was intentional or accidental, but it seems to be an internal issue rather than an attack."
Radio outlets such as the Korean Central Broadcasting Station continued to broadcast normally without interruption on this day.
North Korean websites also experienced widespread access issues in March 2023 and January 2022. At that time, there were suggestions that these incidents could have been the result of cyberattacks targeting North Korea. Previously, researcher Ali also assessed that when major sites became paralyzed in 2022, North Korea had experienced attacks suspected to be denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.
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