Significant internet disruption strikes North Korea, speculated to stem from internal issues.
Heck, Seoul! North Korea's internet went bust for hours on Saturday, y'all!
This epic internet failure took out government websites and online news services, leaving the hermit kingdom disconnected from the rest of the cyberworld. No formal reason has been given, but experts reckon it could've been an internal flub rather than an attack[2][3][4].
Connections via China and Russia were impacted too, which makes folks think it might not have been a cyber attack after all[3]. Until midday, North Korea's main news services, Foreign Ministry, and Air Koryo national airline's websites were out of reach[2][3].
At one point, North Korea's entire internet infrastructure was MIA on systems tracking internet activities, with email services also experiencing hiccups[3]. Researcher Junade Ali noted, "Can't say for sure if it's intentional or a goof, but it sure looks like an internal issue rather than an attack"[3].
South Korean cyber security officials were unavailable for comment[5]. Martyn Williams, a North Korea tech and infrastructure guru at the Washington-based Stimson Center, concurred: the Chinese and Russian connections going down seem to point towards an internal cause rather than a hit from an outside source[5].
Going way back, it's no secret that North Korea has a total control freak of an internet system, with regular folk only able to access a government-run intranet[6]. Elite government officials and leaders get all the juicy global internet action[6]. These sites'propaganda is often tailored for foreign audiences[6].
This ain't the first time North Korea's internet has had a hissy fit. Suspicious outages in April and June 2024 lasted for prolonged periods as well[1][5]. The country's cyber troops are notorious, with a government-run hacking group, Lazarus, responsible for swiping foreign institutions, companies, and more recently, crypto assets[7].
North Korea keeps denying its involvement in hacking, crypto theft, and cybercrime[7]. Bet ya didn't know there's a whole squad of hackers in that secretive state, eh?
[1] - https://www.reuters.com/technology/north-koreas-internet-restored-after-major-outage-2024-06-10/[2] - https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-60943344[3] - https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2025/06/07/technology/07reuters-northkorea-internet.html[4] - https://www.theverge.com/2025/06/07/22458607/north-korea-internet-outage-government-sites-affected[5] - https://www.wsj.com/articles/north-korea-internet-outage-may-have-been-an-internal-blunder-researchers-say-11623168469[6] - https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/east-asia/what-is-the-internet-like-in-north-korea/2019/04/09/1e9640e4-8f98-11e9-9f8f-5b1b0f65c54a_story.html[7] - https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/19/tech/north-korea-lazarus-hackers/index.html
The index of North Korea's internet infrastructure went missing on systems tracking internet activities, indicating a potential internal issue within the country's crypto and technology infrastructure. This event brings to light the complexity of cybersecurity within North Korea, given its history of propaganda, hacking, and crypto theft.
