'Korean Domain' Era Opens
By Jung So-young
Saturday, December 14, 2002
Korean domain names will be introduced in full gear over the Internet next year. According to the industry on Dec. 13, domain name service provider VeriSign has begun to distribute PlugIn software for Korean domain service that comes with Korean-lettered domain names. The Korean Internet Information Center (KRNIC
http://www.nic.or.kr) is also pushing for a launch of '.kr' Korean domain name service in April next year, while U.S.-based domain service firm iDNS Korea recruiting service resellers for '.com' Korean Internet domain names.
?ž 'Korean letters.kr'
KRNIC, an organization overseeing '.kr' country domain names, said at an Internet Address Committee meeting held recently that it will "roll out '.kr' Korean domain name service in April next year as international Internet standardization organization Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) sets a standard for interoperability between name servers and applications, which has been a major stumbling block for service."
KRNIC will allow 2 to 19 Korean letters to be used before '.kr' suffix without 'co' or 'pe' in between. Application for pre-registration before service launch will be available for legislative, judiciary and administrative branch agencies and education organizations.
The domain body is also set to further discuss such service-related issues as domain system, reserved word lists and forwarding.
KRNIC first set a Korean domain service plan as early as in August 2000 and selected a service provider in October. Despite the successful pilot service in March last year, the service launch has been delayed due to the absence of international standards.
?ž 'Korean letters.com'
U.S.-based domain name giant VeriSign is also poised to roll out Korean-lettered domain names with the new standard in place, after more than 2 years of delay since the first registration in November 2000.
Under a service contract with RealNames, it had provided a limited version of a language switch service for some time, only to suspend the service in June last year as RealNames filed for a bankruptcy. It is now distributing free PlugIn software over the Internet instead.
In particular, it expects the number of service users and registration applicants to increase significantly with the software in full circulation via its resellers. According to industry sources, some 300,000 registration applications have so far been filed by Koreans.
PlugIn, with its LangResolve feature, allows users to type in a 'Korean letters.com' domain name to move to the corresponding Website over Internet Explorer 5.5. or 6.0 version. LangMail feature will also enable representation and transmission of Korean-lettered e-mail addresses over MS Outlook 2000 or 2002 version.
?ž Fully Korean
iDNS Korea has been preparing for registration service of Korean letters only domain names that comes with Korean-lettered suffixes representing business, communication, organization and computer.
It now plans to roll out the service in full gear around March next year in league with domestic domain name service providers. To this end, the company is now set to distribute PlugIn software.
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