Kwangmyong (network)

Kwangmyong (Chosŏn'gŭl: 광명; Hancha: 光明; English: Light) is a North Korean "walled garden" national intranet service opened in 2000. It may be accessed by web browsers, incorporates email services, news groups, and an internal web search engine. The network uses its own DNS service to use domain names that are not used on the global Internet. Sites are accessible by either a URL or an IP address.

Only a small number of government officials and tourists are allowed to use the global Internet, making Kwangmyong the only computer network available to North Korean citizens. It is a free service for public use.

The Kwangmyong network is composed of multiple websites and services, including but not limited to: political, economic, scientific and cultural information and fields of knowledge among other topics; an emailing service; a social networking service; domestic news services; scientific research websites of academic and scholarly works devoted to the network through web-based academic exchanges and information sharing such as the Academy of Sciences for Science and Technology (Chosŏn'gŭl: 과학기술전시관; Hancha: 科學技術展示館) and the Academy of Sciences for Medical Science (Chosŏn'gŭl: 의학과학정보센터); websites of various North Korean government agencies including provincial government, cultural institutions, universities and some of the major industrial and commercial organizations; censored websites from the Internet (mostly related to science) that are downloaded, undergo review and censorship, and publication on the Kwangmyong; an electronic library; and a few e-commerce websites by commercial organizations. As of 2014, Kwangmyong is estimated to have between 1,000 and 5,500 websites.

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