NIDA

Type:	Non-Profit
Industry:	Internet
Founded:	2004
Country:	South Korea
Website:	www.nida.kr
Key People
Dr. Syung-Kyoo Park, Prsident

NIDA (National Internet Development Agency of Korea) is a non-profit statutory organization under the Ministry of Information and Communication in South Korea and serves as the registry for the .kr ccTLD. NIDA was created on July 30, 2004 when the Korean government enacted Article 9 of the Internet Address Resources Act .

In 2009, NIDA was integrated with Korea IT International Cooperation Agency (KIICA) and Korea Internet Security Agency (KISA).

Role

Based on the .kr ccTLD Model and Operation prepared by Kim Jaeyoun on September 26th, 2005, NIDA's responsibilities include:

1. Develop policies for the .kr domain name and IP address allocation as well as registration of domain name and assignment of IP address and AS numbers
2. Manage .kr domain names servers (IPv4/IPv6).
3. Research and development of Internet related subjects such as IPv6, Internet address system for the next generation and multi-lingual domain names systems, ENUM, etc.
4. Cooperate with international organizations which include ICANN, ISOC, IETF, APTLD, APNIC, APNG, MINC etc.
5. Release Internet related statistics.
6. Host annual internet-related conferences, workshops and seminars.

NIDA and ICANN

In 2008, NIDA expressed its position to ICANN regarding the implementation of IDN TLDs. According to the organiztion, the implementation of IDN TLDs will serve as a turning point in the history of Internet and it is important to ensure the stability of the Internet throughout the process; therefore, localization should not be overlooked and the community language should be considered one of pre-requisites in the application for IDN TLD. NIDA also suggested that ICANN should provide additional application criteria for IDN TLDs instead of trying to resolve the issue by proposed process such as comparative evaluation and auction.

In 2009, Dr. Syung-Kyoo Park, NIDA president, wrote to ICANN president Dr. Paul Twomey, and expressed the organization's commitment to securing and enhancing the stability and interoperability of the Internet's Domain Name System for the benefit of the local and global Internet community. Park enumerated the undertakings of NIDA, which include:

1. Generate regular updates of the .kr zone data in compliance with relevant technological standards and subject to and within the limits of relevant national law and national public policy
2. Operate and maintain the authoritative name servers of .kr in a stable and secure manner.
3. Notify ICANN as the organization which performs the IANA function of any change of information on the .kr that is being stored in the IANA data base, including possible changes in the administrative and technical contacts.
4. Ensure ccTLD registrants are legally established and geographically located in Korea.

Furthermore, Park also expressed the organization's willingness to contribute, voluntarily, $30,000 per year to support ICANN's cost of operations relevant to the ccTLD.