North Korea Builds Private Blockchain Network Using Ethereum Technology

North Korea has been confirmed to have independently built a private blockchain network based on Ethereum technology. While there had been observations that North Korea was conducting research on blockchain and virtual assets (digital assets) and building systems, this is the first time concrete details have been confirmed. 

According to sources familiar with North Korea, researchers from Kim Il Sung University submitted a paper titled “Method for Constructing a Private Ethereum Network” to the university's journal, Information Science, Volume 3, 2025.

According to the paper obtained by NK Economy, the North Korean researchers stated, “To utilize Ethereum, recognized as the most famous framework globally using Blockchain 2.0 technology, previous studies examined methods for constructing an Ethereum private network (Privatenet) on the Linux operating system, but failed to accurately examine the connection issues between nodes.”

Ethereum is a blockchain platform and digital asset announced in 2015 by Vitalik Buterin of Russia and others. In the digital asset field, Ethereum is well-known second only to Bitcoin.

According to the paper, the North Korean research team had already established a private Ethereum network based on the Linux operating system in prior research. This is interpreted to mean that they built a small-scale blockchain network in a closed, private manner using Ethereum technology, separate from the publicly available Ethereum platform. 

North Korean researchers stated, “In this paper, we propose a method for constructing a private Ethereum network (institutional network) on top of the Windows operating system, separate from the Ethereum blockchain network (mainnet) existing on the internet.” This time, they built a private Ethereum network based on the Windows operating system. It is also noteworthy that the North Korean researchers used the term “institutional network” for this network.

The North Korean researchers explained that in the Ethereum network, P2P protocols are used to have each terminal node form a blockchain, and all operations proceed under mutual consensus. North Korea refers to blockchain as a “block chain.”

The North Korean researchers introduced the mainnet, testnet, and private net in relation to the Ethereum network. The mainnet is the basic Ethereum network currently existing on the internet, while testnets are networks for testing, including Ropsten, Kovan, and Rinkeby. They explained that the purpose of testnets is to test smart contracts and DApps before introducing them into actual products.

They introduced the private net as a closed network constructed by creating a new genesis block, serving as a network isolated from the internet for specific purposes.

In their conclusion, the North Korean researchers claimed they laid the groundwork for applying blockchain technology in reality by proposing a method to construct an Ethereum private network within an internal network, without utilizing the existing Ethereum network on the internet.

The North Korean research team stated they referenced Mastering Ethereum (published in 2019) and Mastering Blockchain (published in 2020) for this study.

Until now, whether North Korea was utilizing any blockchain technology or platforms remained shrouded in secrecy. This paper confirms they are utilizing Ethereum and building a private blockchain network for internal use.

* 이 내용은 인공지능 서비스 DeepL에 의해 번역된 것입니다.

This article was translated by the artificial intelligence service DeepL.