North Korea’s Internet struggles to return after total shutdown

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North Korea’s Internet has limped back online after it appeared to have been shut down completely.

Analysis of Internet performance from metrics firm Dyn Research showed that after a day of increasing problems, North Korea’s national Internet had gone . But two state-run newspapers are now back online, including one showing the country’s leader Kim Jong-un touring a catfish farm.

Still, it seems to be a struggle for North Korea to stay consistently online, Dyn Research tweeted overnight and then again into the day Tuesday.

Internet of North Korea down again at 15:41 UTC. Second blackout since last night’s restoration of service pic.twitter.com/TLI7VOdbi0

— Dyn Research (@DynResearch) December 23, 2014

Cybersecurity experts speculate the country may have been subjected to a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack.

Under North Korea’s totalitarian regime, the country’s population already has limited access to the Internet, mostly consisting of state-run news outlets disseminating party ideology. With just four networks connecting the country’s Intranet to the global Internet, routed via China, North Korea is vulnerable to cyberattack.

Read more on this story

• North Korea’s Internet said to go dark after cyberattack claims
• FBI blames North Korea for Sony hack
• Sony to release ‘The Interview’ after all?
• Interview with a DDoS troll: Meet ‘the Gods of the Internet’
• Sony and the rise of state-sponsored hacking

North Korea has been embroiled in a war of words with the US since an extensive hack was carried out against film studio Sony Pictures last month. Hackers leaked unreleased films, confidential emails and financial data from the studio, which had planned to release a comedy movie, “The Interview”, about an assassination attempt on Kim Jong-un. Sony’s “The Interview”, starring Seth Rogen and James Franco, has since been pulled from release.

Although North Korea denied responsibility, the FBI has formally accused the country of the hack. President Obama promised an appropriate response, but it’s not clear whether the US was involved in any way in North Korea’s Internet problems.

Meanwhile South Korea has beefed up cyber security after the country’s power company Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power reported hackers had targeted its 23 nuclear power plants.