The death of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was announced on the country's state TV service shortly after 0300 UTC this morning (see video). But as of 1100 UTC, the official website of the external radio service, Voice of Korea, had not been updated and anyone visiting it would have been unaware of the news.

Although long delays in releasing official information are normal in North Korea, it's surprising that nothing had been prepared for the website, given that Kim apparently died 48 hours before the announcement. It seems that even the staff of the official media were taken by surprise. The Daily NK, a website run by North Korean defectors in Seoul, quotes an 'inside source' as saying "Nobody had the slightest idea about the General’s death even right before they saw the broadcast. You can hear the sound of wailing outside."

The English website was eventually updated around midnight local time in Pyongyang. The news stories (in Macintosh audio format) were replaced with these:

• To all party members, people's army service personnel and people
• Members of State Funeral Commission for Kim Jong Il formed
• Communique of State Funeral Commission
• Medical conclusion on disease and cause of death of Kim Jong Il

But there was still no change to the colour or design of the home page, suggesting that there is no procedure in place for dealing with the unexpected. Clearly North Korea has not yet learned how to use the Internet to cover breaking news.

Radio service does better
The international radio service did somewhat better. North Korea Tech reports: "The Voice of Korea, North Korea’s international radio service, made its first broadcast in English after the announcement of the death of Kim Jong Il. The broadcast was dominated by a news bulletin that attempted to carry some of the emotion being seen and heard on domestic media, but the announcer didn’t reach tears.

"The script took the form of a verbatim reading of a lengthy announcement from the central government. With the exception of the major news item, the broadcast was otherwise close to normal. It opened with the same two songs it always does, had a regular episode after the news on the work of Kim Jong Il and played patriotic and revolutionary songs."

The complete current schedule of English broadcasts from the Voice of Korea can be found on this page.

South Korea reacts
By contrast, the news is heavily featured on the website of KBS World, the South Korean external service. It reports that the South Korean government has issued a warning of potential cyber attacks following the death of Kim Jong-il. It says the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) raised its warning to the agency’s third highest alert level at 2.00pm on Monday, two hours after the North’s state-run media, the Korean Central News Agency, reported the death.

The government in Seoul said it is closely monitoring any signs of malignant codes, altered websites or sudden increases in traffic on the internet to cope with cyber attacks, such as a distributed denial of service attack. The government also decided to strengthen its monitoring of major state or civilian organization websites and to deal swiftly with any attacks on related organizations. The government has asked internet users not to open unidentified and suspicious e-mails.

(as/mb)