ICANN to delegate .kp to North Korea

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Source: http://www.iana.org/reports/kp-report-11sep2007.html

IANA Report on Delegation of the .KP Top-Level Domain

Background

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) function of ICANN, as part of the administrative tasks associated with management of the Domain Name System root zone, is responsible for receiving requests for the delegation and redelegation of top-level domains, investigating and reporting on the circumstances pertinent to those requests, and, when appropriate, implementing the redelegations.

In accordance with ICANN’s performance of these functions, ICANN received a request for the delegation of the .KP top-level domain. This domain is designated for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) in the ISO 3166-1 standard. The application was received on 26 January 2007, with supporting documentation received in the following month.

The DPRK is an East Asian country situated on the northern half of the Korean Peninsula with a population of approximately 23 million people. The .KP country code has never been delegated in the DNS root zone.

On 22 October 2004, ICANN received a letter from the Permanent Mission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the United Nations, signed by Ambassador Songryol Han. The letter informed ICANN that the “DPRK Computer Center is assigned as the national network center and authorised to manage “KP” state domain by the government of the DPRK.” This letter was not supported by any further documentation or any formal delegation request as required to properly instigate a request.

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