Kwangmyong (network)

Kwangmyong (Chosongul: 광명; Hancha: 光明; English: Bright) is a North Korean nationwide computer network opened in 2000. It may be accessed by web browsers, incorporates email services, news groups, and a web search engine.

In North Korea, only a small number of government-authorized persons are allowed to use the Internet, so Kwangmyong is the only computer network available to other people. This is a free service for public use.

Detail

Designed only for domestic use in North Korea, Kwangmyong is not directly connected to the Internet to prevent contact of domestic users with foreign source of information or to prevent the leak of classified data. It functions as a form of information censorship, preventing undesirable information from being accessed. Thus, sensitive topics and information are unlikely to surface on Kwangmyong due to the absence of a link to the outside world. Kwangmyong is maintained by government-related entities. However, large amounts of material from the Internet end up on Kwangmyong, following processing.

Coverage

Kwangmyong is accessible from within North Korea's major cities, counties, as well as universities and major industrial and commercial organizations.

Content

• Information such as political, economic, scientific, cultural and other fields of knowledge.
• Domestic news service
• A mailing service similar in function to that of e-mail
• University scientific research areas of academic and scholarly works devoted to the network through web-based academic exchanges and information sharing.
  • Academy of Sciences for science and technology (Chosongul: 과학기술전시관 Hancha: 科學技術展示館)
  • Academy of Sciences for medical science (Chosongul: 의학과학정보센터)
• At present, North Korea in the various government agencies, provincial government, cultural institutions, universities, as well as some of the major industrial and commercial organizations have set up their own web site and has links to Kwangmyong.
• Censored websites from the Internet (mostly science-related). Upon a request, whole websites may be downloaded from the Internet, undergo review and censorship, and be published on Kwangmyong.
• An electronic library (Chosongul: 전자도서열람).

Network access

Kwangmyong has 24-hour unlimited access by dial-up telephone line.

Languages

The network uses Korean as the main interface language, and is maintained by more than 2,000 language experts, according to official information, in expanding services in Russian, Chinese, English, French, German and Japanese, in which there is a real-time, online translation service for the seven languages, with a database containing over 2,000,000 words, to assist users who may not be familiar with foreign languages.

Information control

Given that there is no direct connection to the outside internet, unwanted information cannot enter the country. Information is filtered and processed by government agencies before being hosted on the intranet network. Cuba and Myanmar also use a similar network system that is separated from the rest of the internet, and Iran has future plans to implement such a network.

See also

• Internet in North Korea

External links

• BBC: Sampling North Korea's version of the internet - includes video
• North Korea and the Internet - Economist
• Kwangmyong computer network
• Digital Divide on the Korean Peninsula
• Hermit Surfers of P'yongyang，CIA