Can foreigners get internet in North Korea?

When I first started going to North Korea in 2008 there was no intent at all. Then a mere 7 years later we could get a sim card with internet, but bugger all WiFi – save a very slow connection to Facebook at the Hyangsan Hotel.

Well it is all change as foreigners can get internet in North Korea, with it not actually being that expensive. So, how much does it cost, how fast is it and what is blocked? Here’s my guide to internet in North Korea (as a foreigner)

How the Internet in North Korea works

North Korea essentially has two completely separate online systems that do not interact with each other at all. One is the domestic intranet used by locals, while the other is the actual international internet used by foreigners. They genuinely exist in different universes.

As a foreigner you cannot use local Korean apps to order taxis, pay by QR code or access domestic online services. Likewise you are not gonna be adding your guide on WhatsApp or swapping Instagram details with random locals. The domestic North Korean network and the foreign internet simply do not connect in that way.

What surprises many people (now) though is how advanced the North Korean intranet has become. Back in the day it really was primitive, but now it increasingly resembles the Chinese firewall internet. There are domestic ecommerce sites, payment systems, local messaging platforms, video services, apps and internal websites all functioning within the DPRK network. There’s even basically domestic Amazon and GrabFood – truly what a time to be alive!

Getting internet in hotels

Getting internet in North Korea is actually pretty straightforward these days. At almost every international hotel you simply head to reception and ask for internet access. You are then issued with a username and password linked directly to your room account.

You connect to the hotel network, log in through the portal page and then use the internet normally. Rather than paying upfront, the charges are simply added to your room and paid when you check out.

The current price is around $1.70 USD per minute. Yes, per minute rather than per hour. Thankfully though it is charged by time rather than data used, so if you are efficient you can smash through emails, uploads and social media fairly quickly.

At the Koryo Hotel you can use internet pretty much everywhere. In your room, in the lobby, in the bar and throughout the entire hotel openly in front of Koreans without anyone caring. The same has applied at every hotel where we have used it, including hotels in Rason. We have also successfully used internet at the Hyangsan Hotel.

The genuinely surprising thing is the speed. In many respects internet in North Korea is actually better than China. Connections are stable, sites load properly and there is far less random buffering than you often get across the border.

Getting a Sim Card in North Korea

There was actually a period when getting a North Korean sim card as a foreigner was relatively easy. You would physically turn up at the Koryolink office, hand over your passport details, pay the fees and walk away with mobile internet and a foreigner number.

We previously had one ourselves. The strange thing though was that you had to physically leave the sim card inside North Korea whenever you left the country. You could not simply take it abroad and return later expecting it to still work. Each time you came back you essentially had to physically turn up again and reactivate things.

The whole North Korean phone network is also extremely compartmentalised. Foreigner sim cards could not directly call local Korean numbers and the domestic and foreign systems were kept heavily separated from each other.

Sadly this now seems to have largely disappeared for tourists. Since the reopening it has become extremely difficult for ordinary tourists and even short term business visitors to obtain a sim card at all. Long term residents and certain organisations may still have access, but for most visitors this no longer really seems to be an option.

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What’s blocked on the internet in North Korea?

One of the stranger things about internet in North Korea is that very little is directly blocked once foreigners are online. Instead your internet traffic is generally routed externally through Russia before reaching the wider internet, which creates most of the quirks people experience.

This means that problems with Google services and certain Western sites are often caused more by routing issues than by North Korea actively banning them. Sometimes sites work perfectly, while other times they behave oddly or suddenly stop loading for no obvious reason.

In practical terms this means you simply need a decent VPN. With that in place most things work surprisingly well. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, Gmail and regular websites are usually accessible without too much drama.

TikTok though is sadly an absolute nightmare. For whatever reason TikTok barely functions properly on North Korean internet connections even with a VPN running. Uploading videos is especially painful and usually not worth the effort.

If you somehow manage to get one of the now near impossible foreigner sim cards then the same rules apply there too. The connection itself works, but you are still dealing with the same externally routed network as hotel internet throughout North Korea.

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