Kwangmyong (Korean: 광명; lit. 'bright light') is a North Korean national intranet service opened in the early 2000s. The Kwangmyong intranet system stands in contrast to the global Internet in North Korea, which is available to fewer people in the country. The network uses domain names under the .kp top level domain that are not usually accessible from the global Internet. As of 2016, the network uses IPv4 addresses reserved for private networks in the 10.0.0.0/8 range, also known as 24-bit block as defined in RFC 1918. North Koreans often find it more convenient to access sites by their IP address rather than by domain name using Latin characters. Like the global Internet, the network hosts content accessible with web browsers, and provides an internal web search engine. It also provides email services and news groups. The intranet is managed by the Korea Computer Center.
History The first website in North Korea, the Naenara web portal, was made in 1996. Efforts to establish the Kwangmyong network on a national scale began as early as 1997, with some development of intranet services in the Rajin-Sonbong Economic Special Zone as early as 1995. The intranet was originally developed by the Central Scientific and Technological Information Agency. The national Kwangmyong intranet was first in service during the early 2000s. North Korea's first email provider was Sili Bank, established in 2001. Prior to 2006, North Koreans would use intranet chat rooms to organize meetups to play sports, such as basketball. Following an incident where, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Naenara, around 300 North Korean intranet users organized a flash mob at the Pyongyang Gymnasium, all chat rooms were removed from the North Korean intranet. Regional chat rooms reportedly made a return in 2015. In 2013, Anonymous-affiliated hackers claimed to have broken into North Korea's intranet. However, evidence for the claim was lacking. A video conferencing system called Rakwon was developed at Kim Il-sung University in 2010. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it became much more popular for remote meetings and appeared regularly on news bulletins. Telemedicine and remote education systems have been developed. The first online shopping website was opened in 2015, and 22 such websites were available by 2021. The Central Bank of North Korea launched an electronic payment system in 2020.
Content As of 2014, the Kwangmyong network was estimated to have between about 1,000 and 5,500 websites. In 2021, Max Fisher of Vox estimated that the number was about 5,000. Excélsior also estimated the number at about 5,000 the following year. The Kwangmyong network is composed of many websites and services. Some sites host political and economic propaganda. Scientific and cultural information and fields of knowledge among other topics can be found elsewhere. Over 30 million mostly scientific or technical documents were reportedly posted to the intranet as of 2007. Websites of various North Korean government agencies including provincial government, cultural institutions, major universities and libraries, some local schools, and some of the major industrial and commercial organizations are accessible to users. The network also contains (mostly science-related) websites from the open Internet that are downloaded, reviewed and censored. An internal emailing service is available on the Kwangmyong network. A search engine is in use for browsing the Kwangmyong intranet. The search engine reportedly goes by the name "Naenara", which means "Our Country". A Facebook-like social networking service in use by professors and university students existed as of 2013, and was used to post birthday messages. CNN reported in 2017 that a "North Korean equivalent to Facebook" exists. Message boards are known to exist on the network. An IPTV video-streaming service called Manbang (만방), Korean for "Everyone", was reportedly launched in August 2016, though the name Manbang appeared in North Korean technology as early as 2013. It is accessed by a Wi-Fi-enabled set-top box. It can be accessed through smartphones and tablet computers. Reportedly the Kwangmyong has been used for online dating. Chat rooms were used by North Koreans interested in sports until 2006, when the chat rooms were removed. Regional chat rooms were added in 2015. Domestic state news services are available on the network, such as the Korean Central News Agency, Rodong Sinmun, and Voice of Korea. Scientific research websites of academic and scholarly works devoted to the network are served through web-based academic exchanges and information sharing such as the Academy of Sciences for Science and Technology (Korean: 과학기술전시관; Hancha: 科學技術展示館) and the Academy of Sciences for Medical Science (Korean: 의학과학정보센터). An electronic library is present on the network, which also hosts video lectures for various topics. Some e-commerce and e-banking websites exist on the network. Some video games also exist on the intranet. One of the games available on the Kwangmyong is Korean chess. Phones provide access to e-books and mobile payment. Some cultural websites are among the few .kp domain websites which have been openly accessible to foreigners through the global Internet, such as at least one culinary site and one displaying the country's film industry. Other services in use on the intranet include dictionaries, telehealth, and text messaging services. Reportedly a travel website allowed North Koreans to plan vacations within the country.
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
