North Korea, the only country in the world that is yet to be linked to the Internet, appears to have nearly completed preparations for access. "Science World," a scientific journal published in North Korea, showed in its April edition last year an ordinary but significant diagram, titled "Intranet," showing a system for a fire wall, installed between the Internet and the intranet, to screen and control information flowing between the two. It is taken as a sign that Pyongyang, prior to opening itself to the Internet, is building an information monitoring and control system. "The diagram indicates that North Korea, having completed a study on a fire wall, to a certain extent, is preparing itself for an access to the Internet," says a South Korean information technology expert familiar with the North.

Pyongyang is likely to permit access to the Internet within the year, according to a reliable source. "North Korea has been expediting preparations in recent months judging that partial access to the Internet will be feasible within the year," commented the source. The North, which has not used its national domain designation "kp," has reportedly been test-using e-mail addresses incorporating it since June.

Kim Chol Hwan, CEO of Gigalink Ltd., whose firm installed a superhighway communication device using telephone line "T-line" at the Pyongyang Information Center (PIC) in March, says, "North Korea has completed the construction of a fire wall." Professor Pak Chan Mo at the Pohang Institute of Science and Technology, specialized in electronics, adds, "The North has conducted a study on fire walls for years with Japanese scholars participating. This can be seen as a part of preparations for accessing the Internet."

North Korea is also reportedly busy coding information flowing through the intranet linking ministries, IT research institutions such as the Korea Computer Center (KCC) and PIC, universities, and business establishments. The coding is aimed at blocking outside hacking once the North is hooked up to the Internet.

North Korean authorities are conducting an ideological checkup of people engaged in computer work, according to sources, and it is hard to assess the scope of linkage once the North permits access to the Internet. Only a few special agencies such as the office of National Defense Commission chairman Kim Jong Il and the State Security Agency use the Internet with optical communications lines supplied by China Telecom. Internet sites publicizing the North Korean system have been established in China and Japan and elsewhere. When the North is linked to the Internet on its own, Pyongyang is expected to use the artificial satellite formula. President Cho Hyon Jung of Bitcomputer Ltd. agreed in June with the KCC on Internet access through satellites, which is underway for targeted completion by the end of this month.

Even if the North does complete preparations for Internet access, it will be quite a while before the Internet is popularized in the North. North Korean people using the Internet are anticipated to be extremely few in number, confined mainly to those who develop computer software.

(Lee Kyo Kwan, haedang@chosun.com )