North Korea is known to have developed a health information sharing system based on blockchain technology. This is the first time specific information has been confirmed about North Korea utilizing blockchain technology to build an internal system.
According to sources on North Korea, researchers from Kim Il Sung University submitted a paper titled ‘A Secure Data Sharing Method Using a Private Blockchain’ to the Journal of Information Science, Issue 2. North Korea refers to blockchain as “block chain.”
According to the paper obtained by NK Economy, the North Korean researchers stated, “Secure data sharing is extremely important for providing long-distance medical services,” and argued that “Block chain, being immutable, decentralized, and providing verifiability without a single point of failure, can be effectively utilized for data sharing in the healthcare field.”
They further stated, “Unlike financial transaction data, health records are important and sensitive data that need not be shared by all users on a computer network, but only by those directly involved in patient care.” They explained, “This paper proposes one method to ensure the secure sharing of health data using a stakeholder-private block chain.”
The system was built on a blockchain foundation, considering requirements like reliability and security for healthcare information sharing.
The North Korean research team pointed out that in healthcare, unlike finance, it is not feasible to apply public blockchain technology where all participants share all transaction records and add new blocks according to proof-of-work procedures. Considering this, the North Korean researchers designed a blockchain data sharing system to guarantee the healthcare tasks of stakeholders involved in creating, storing, and using patient health records. This system consists of User A (data provider), User B (data user), Data Server S, and Blockchain Server BC. The researchers specifically explained the blockchain system configuration method and introduced their analysis of its security.
In their conclusion, the North Korean researchers stated, “We designed a data sharing method for health records based on a private blockchain where stakeholders reach precise consensus, without utilizing the competitive consensus protocols used in traditional blockchain technology,” adding, “We demonstrated that it is possible to design secure sharing and request procedures for health record data in an environment of imperfect trust, while ensuring the confidentiality and integrity of shared data.”
This paper confirms that North Korea is not merely researching blockchain technology but is actively seeking to apply it to real-world systems.
* 이 내용은 인공지능 서비스 DeepL에 의해 번역된 것입니다.
This article was translated by the artificial intelligence service DeepL.