Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
Some internet services have been restored in North Korea after an almost unprecedented internet outage, amid a cyber security row with the US.
Though there has been no comment from the authorities in Pyongyang, US experts reported the restoration.
Some analysts say the country’s web access was cut entirely for a time.
Washington said it would launch a proportional response to a cyber-attack on Sony Pictures, which made a comedy about North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Officials would not comment on any US involvement in the current outages.
Meanwhile, China’s permanent representative to the United Nations has called for all sides to avoid an escalation of tension on the Korean Peninsula after the UN security council put the North’s human rights record on its agenda.
There is a paradox. North Korea is highly “teched up” but is denied the worldwide web. Many people have smart phones, for example, but they cannot access the web with them.
The authorities take great pains to prevent citizens from accessing the internet. Recently, embassies in Pyongyang were told they could not have wifi networks within the building. It transpired that demand for neighbouring property had risen because residents there could get access to the embassies’ wifi.
What North Korea does have is an intranet, its own internal internet with a lot of state-controlled news websites disseminating the party line, but also a cookery website.
Ordinary North Koreans are unlikely to notice the absence of the internet because they were denied it anyway. But they might notice the disappearance of their own online newspapers and sources of news. And also the cookery website.
BBC