When North Korean leader Kim Jong-un isn’t busy threatening to reduce the western world to a ‘sea of fire’, it seems he’s actually quite up on his digital innovations.
Earlier this year, the secretive totalitarian state was revealed to have its own Netflix-like streaming service, somewhat unfortunately titled Manbang.
And now, the rest of the world has gained an insight into the country’s ‘internet’, usually inaccessible to those outside North Korea, following an apparent error.
For a brief time, the world had access to top level DNS data, which revealed a list of all the all domain names using the .kp domain.
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And, as it turns out, the entire system is made up of just 28 websites, as Github users found out – marking the first time anyone outside the country has gained access to the internal system.
If you want the technical data, the Github page details the following:
“On Sept 19, 2016 at approximately 10:00PM (PDT), one of North Korea’s top level nameservers was accidentally configured to allow global DNS zone transfers. This allows anyone who performs an AXFR (zone transfer) request to the country’s ns2.kptc.kp nameserver to get a copy of the nation’s top level DNS data.”
So, what can the beleaguered citizens of Kim’s nightmare state browse in their spare time? Well,
There was also a site for Air Koryo, the country’s airline, and the mysterious friend.com.kp, which remains inaccessible for the time being.
Here’s the full list of .kp domains:
airkoryo.com.kp
cooks.org.kp
friend.com.kp
gnu.rep.kp
kass.org.kp
kcna.kp
kiyctc.com.kp
knic.com.kp
koredufund.org.kp
korelcfund.org.kp
korfilm.com.kp
ma.gov.kp
masikryong.com.kp
naenara.com.kp
nta.gov.kp
portal.net.kp
rcc.net.kp
rep.kp
rodong.rep.kp
ryongnamsan.edu.kp
sdprk.org.kp
silibank.net.kp
star-co.net.kp
star-di.net.kp
star.co.kp
star.edu.kp
star.net.kp
vok.rep.kp
No Facebook, then.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.