The report from the official North Korean news agency, Korean Central News Agency, which is itself run from a Japanese-domain Website, was sparse on details. Like the country itself, North Korea online remains heavily restricted.
The dispatch said that "the e-mail service guarantees the privacy of correspondence as it has a network security system," although no technical details were included. It did say that it had "a large transmission ban", which appears to mean high-speed bandwidth. The system is operating from North Korea's International Communications Center and works over local dial-up with a user name and password, and is free of charge.
How many Internet users, or even how many computer users there are in North Korea, remains unknown, although an Associated Press wire agency report on the email service said that few are believed to have any access. Leader Kim Jong II is known to be online, and has repeatedly mentioned the importance of computer technology. Foreign visitors can connect their computers through international phone lines at a few North Korean hotels and an Internet cafe reportedly recently opened in Pyongyang.
Rumors of North Korea training hackers to attack South Korea have been circulating. Six South Korean activists were arrested in 2001 for exchanging non-government authorized emails with North Korean officials, the AP report said. It remains illegal for any South Koreans to email their northern neighbors without government permission.
The two Koreas remain technically at war since the 1950-53 civil war. North Korea's isolation has increased recently with nuclear threats, although there is some trade between North Korea and the rest of the world. Widespread famine and workcamps are reported, but little is known about North Korea's economy.
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