• North Korea's internet faced a major outage, disrupting access to government websites.
• The cause of the outage is thought to be internal, not the result of a cyberattack.
• Key sites, including the Foreign Ministry and Air Koryo, were inaccessible.
• Service began to return slowly, with effects felt across connections through China and Russia.
• Experts suggest this outage follows prior cyber threats faced by North Korea.

On June 7, North Korea experienced a major internet outage that severely disrupted access to government websites and official news services, effectively cutting the nation off from global cyberspace. Analysts suggest that the outage, which lasted several hours, was likely caused by internal issues rather than as a result of external cyberattacks, affecting all major connections via China and Russia, according to Channel News Asia, Al Jazeera, and Reuters.

During the outage, key websites such as the Foreign Ministry, the national airline Air Koryo, and other official news services were inaccessible. This disruption in service reportedly began to correct itself by midday, but substantial impacts were noted early on, and email services were also affected. "Hard to say if this is intentional or accidental - but seems like this is internal rather than an attack," said Junade Ali, a UK-based researcher monitoring North Korea's internet infrastructure, according to India Times and Channel News Asia.

Experts agree that North Korea's tightly controlled internet system and its isolated structure contribute to such outages. Martyn Williams, a specialist on North Korean technology at the Stimson Center, highlighted that the reliance on infrastructure through external countries like China and Russia points to internal causes for the outage, rather than external attacks. Notably, North Korea has faced similar extensive outages in previous years, suspected to be linked to cyberattacks, although the current situation appears different, as reported by Al Jazeera and Reuters.