DHAKA: A clone of the Facebook social media site has briefly appeared in North Korea before quickly going offline.

Hosted on the StarCon.net.kp address in North Korea it had many of the features of other social networks.

It is not clear who created StarCon but it is thought to be a test project for a future service to be offered by the nation’s telecoms operator.

Soon after being discovered, the site was hacked and it is now not accessible.

The site was spotted by Doug Madory, a researcher at network management firm Dyn, who said it was rare to see any websites hosted in the secretive nation. The site's name suggested it was linked to North Korea's Star telecom service, he said.

“I do not believe it was intended to be accessible from outside North Korea,” Madory told the BBC.

However, he said, Dyn’s mention of StarCon on its Twitter feed led people to set up personal pages on the site and start using it to swap messages.

One of the first accounts created parodied North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Outsiders created about 300 accounts on StarCon during its brief existence.

BDST: 0841 HRS, June 1, 2016
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