North Korea Vanishes from the Internet for Hours… Outage Severs Its Last Digital Ties
On Saturday, North Korea experienced a widespread internet outage that lasted for several hours, deepening its already extreme isolation from the rest of the world.
The blackout resulted in a total shutdown of access to government websites and official news services, effectively disconnecting the reclusive state from the global digital space.
Internet and digital infrastructure monitoring experts stated that the outage did not appear to be caused by an overt cyberattack. Rather, it was likely the result of an internal malfunction—particularly after communication routes via China and Russia, the country’s two primary international gateways, were also affected.
Key Services Offline
The disruption impacted a number of major websites, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, official news outlets, and the national airline’s website, “Air Koryo.”
Checks conducted by Reuters indicated that the sites began gradually returning to service around midday local time.
British internet monitoring researcher Junaid Ali noted that “North Korea’s digital infrastructure temporarily vanished from global monitoring systems, and email services also went offline.” He added, “It’s difficult to determine whether this was intentional or accidental, but current indicators suggest an internal failure.”
Likely Internal Cause
Martin Williams, a North Korea digital infrastructure expert at the Stimson Center in Washington, echoed this assessment, saying the issue was “most likely internal,” especially considering the disruption of Chinese and Russian links connected to the North Korean network.
As of now, North Korean authorities have not released an official statement, and attempts to reach South Korea’s cybercrime response center for more information were unsuccessful.
Tightly Controlled Internet
North Korea is one of the most restrictive countries in the world in terms of internet access. The general public is not allowed to access the global web, and usage is limited to a closed internal network managed by the state. International internet access is granted only to a small elite of top officials and leadership personnel.
Government websites and official media are primarily used as propaganda tools aimed at external audiences, while domestic users are offered extremely limited access to outside content.
North Korea has previously experienced similar outages, which were often attributed to hostile cyberattacks. However, Pyongyang has repeatedly denied any involvement in hacking or cyber operations targeting foreign entities.
Several international agencies accuse the Lazarus Group—a collective allegedly linked to North Korean intelligence—of being behind cyberattacks on banks, government institutions, tech companies, and large-scale cryptocurrency thefts. North Korea has firmly denied all such allegations.
