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North Korea internet hit by a major outage, analyst says

A North Korean flag flutters at the propaganda village of Gijungdong in North Korea, in this picture taken near the truce village of Panmunjom inside the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas, South Korea on Jul.19, 2022. (Kim Hong-Ji/Pool/File Photo/Reuters)

(Reuters) – North Korea’s internet is experiencing a major outage on Saturday, said a UK-based researcher, adding that the cause may be may be internal rather than a cyberattack.

North Korea’s main news web sites and its Foreign Ministry internet site were inaccessible on Saturday morning, according to checks by Reuters.

“A major outage is currently occurring on North Korea’s internet – affecting all routes whether they come in via China or Russia,” said Junade Ali, a U.K.-based researcher who monitors the North Korean internet.

North Korea’s entire internet infrastructure is not showing up on systems that can monitor internet activities, he said.

“Hard to say if this is intentional or accidental – but seems like this is internal rather than an attack,” he said.

Officials at South Korea’s Police cyber terror response centre which monitors North Korea’s cyber activities could not be reached for comment.

(Reporting by Jack Kim and Josh Smith; Editing by Sandra Maler and Edwina Gibbs)