N Korean websites back online after shutdown

Seoul, December 23

Key North Korean websites were back online today after an hours-long shutdown that followed a US vow to respond to a crippling cyberattack on Sony Pictures that Washington blames on Pyongyang.

The White House and the State Department declined to say whether the US government was responsible for the Internet shutdown in one of the least-wired and poorest countries in the world.

Although North Korea is equipped for broadband Internet, only a small, approved segment of the population has any access to the World Wide Web. Few North Koreans have access to computers; those who do are typically able to connect only to a domestic Intranet.

Though it denies responsibility for the Sony hack, Pyongyang has called it a “righteous deed” and made clear its fury over “The Interview,” a comedy that depicts the assassination of the North’s authoritarian leader, Kim Jong Un, the head of a 1.2 million-man army and the focus of an intense cult of personality.

South Korean officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of office rules, said the North’s official Korean Central News Agency and the Rodong Sinmun newspaper, which are the main channels for official North Korea news, had earlier been down.

But the websites were back up later today. Among the posts glorifying the ruling Kim family was one about Kim Jong Un visiting a catfish farm. US computer experts described the Internet outages in the North as sweeping and progressively worse. — AP