North Korea internet outage: Internal failure or cyberattack?

North Korea’s limited internet infrastructure suffered a significant outage for nine hours on Saturday, cutting off access to several government websites, official news services, and email platforms for several hours. The disruption effectively severed the reclusive country’s connection to cyberspace, before services began gradually coming back online around midday.

Websites belonging to North Korea’s Foreign Ministry, its main state-run news agencies, and the national airline, Air Koryo, were among those rendered inaccessible during the blackout, according to a Reuters report.

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North Korea Internet Outage: Experts Point to Internal Causes

Junade Ali, a UK-based researcher who monitors North Korea’s internet activity, noted that the entire infrastructure was not appearing on monitoring systems. He said, “Hard to say if this is intentional or accidental – but seems like this is internal rather than an attack.”

This view was echoed by Martyn Williams of the Washington-based Stimson Center, an expert on North Korea’s technology and infrastructure. Williams highlighted that the country's primary internet links through China and Russia were not functioning during the outage, reinforcing the theory of an internal issue.

Nicholas Roy, who manages the North Korean Internet blog, also noted that North Korean websites were withdrawn from the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), suggesting the incident was more than just servers going offline.

He was quoted as saying in a NK News report that while it’s difficult to determine if the outage was a deliberate action by Pyongyang—given the country has experienced several brief but frequent disconnections over the past two years—the extended duration of this disruption seems unusual.

“If it was a mistake, it seems more than a misconfiguration and something else is keeping them offline,” he said.

Roy added that, unlike earlier outages—such as a brief router misconfiguration in March that seemed accidental—it remains unclear whether this latest disruption will have any lasting impact on North Korea’s internet infrastructure.

North Korea: One of the World’s Most Restricted Internet Regimes

Kim Jong Un's North Korea is known for having one of the most tightly controlled internet systems globally. The general population does not have access to the global internet and instead uses a government-controlled intranet. Only a small group of elite government officials and top leadership are permitted to access the broader web.

The country’s few internet-accessible websites often act as a channel for propaganda targeting international audiences.

While this weekend’s incident is believed to be internally caused, North Korea has a documented history of experiencing widespread outages, some of which have previously been attributed to cyberattacks. The country also operates elite units of government-backed hackers, including the Lazarus Group, which has been accused of conducting cyber espionage, launching attacks on foreign entities, and laundering stolen cryptocurrencies.

However, Pyongyang has consistently denied any involvement in cyberattacks or crypto-related crimes.