Dozens of '.kp' domain sites inaccessible

Server overload or cyberattack? Questions mount

[Yonhap]
[Yonhap]

North Korea's state propaganda outlets KCNA and Rodong Sinmun have been inaccessible online for a second consecutive day, drawing heightened attention as rumors of Kim Jong-un's death spread across Chinese social media.

According to the Ministry of Unification and other sources, websites using North Korea's national ".kp" domain — including KCNA and Rodong Sinmun — have been experiencing widespread access failures.

The North Korean propaganda sites have been unreachable since Tuesday evening, with the outage continuing as of 2 p.m. Wednesday. More than 40 websites, including those of North Korea's Foreign Ministry, Minju Joson and Naenara, have either been completely inaccessible or suffering unstable connections.

The cause of the disruption has not been confirmed. Access has reportedly been blocked not only from South Korea but also from the United States and other countries.

The servers managing North Korean websites are believed to run on Chinese telecommunications lines.

Some observers have raised the possibility of a large-scale external cyberattack.

A precedent exists: in late 2014, after the United States government designated North Korea as the perpetrator behind the hacking of Sony Pictures Entertainment — which occurred ahead of the release of "The Interview," a film depicting the assassination of Kim Jong-un — North Korea's internet network was taken completely offline by an external attack.

However, a South Korean government official said there were "no specific signs of hacking being detected."

The outage has only deepened public curiosity, coming as a social media post by a Chinese political figure spread rapidly around the world after being picked up by outlets including Britain's The Times. The post claimed Kim had fallen into a coma after suffering a severe cerebral hemorrhage, died, and that his sister Kim Yo-jong, a Workers' Party vice director, had seized power.

As the death rumors spread across Chinese online platforms, KCNA on Tuesday appeared to push back, releasing photos of Kim inspecting a site alongside his daughter Ju-ae and wife Ri Sol-ju in an apparent show of his continued good health.


jshan@heraldcorp.com