Sili Bank
Sili Bank is a company based in China. The company provides email services in both China and North Korea by maintaining dedicated servers in both countries. Established in September 12, 2001,[1] Sili Bank also known as the Korea 626 Shenyang Co. is a financial institution based in Chilbosan/Qibaoshan Hotel (Chinese: 七宝山饭店) in Shenyang, Liaoning, China, closely related to the government of North Korea.
Etymology
The name sili (Chinese: 實利) means "true profit" in both Chinese and Korean.
Services
In 2001, it was initially limited to those who want to exchange e-mails with trade companies or government agencies. As of May 10, 2003, the fee for sending an e-mail to North Korea from abroad, was 0.1 euros per kilobyte for up to 40 kilobytes, and 0.02 euros for each additional kilobyte in each e-mail transmission.[2] The minimum charge per e-mail was 1 euro (for an e-mail having a size up to 10 kilobytes). Customers must first pre-register with Sili Bank with prepayment for estimated usage over a three-month period to the webmaster Li Mingchun (Chinese: 李明春). Sili Bank only allows e-mail relay between registered users of the service.[3]
North Korea
Since October 8, 2001, the webmail provider began offering a limited electronic mail relay service to and from North Korea, where Internet access is limited.[4] Along with Chesin.com, Sili Bank appears to be one of only two e-mail gateways to DPRK.
Infrastructure
Sili Bank maintains dedicated servers in Pyongyang and Shenyang, between which e-mail transmissions are exchanged once every 10 minutes (when the service commenced, this was hourly).
See also
- Communications in North Korea
References
External links
