In recent years, the North Korean regime has allowed an increasing number of citizens to own a smartphone, but with major limitations in terms of being able to browse online or communicate freely with other people. The progressive spread of these devices is seen by the dictator Kim Jong-un as a further possibility to control the North Koreans and, at the same time, more easily spread the messages of propaganda against South Korea, the United States and other countries considered enemies. The Wall Street Journal dedicated an interesting article to the topic, based on interviews with various experts and with some North Koreans who have managed to escape from the country in recent years, risking their lives.
In North Korea, there are approximately 4 million subscribers to mobile telephone services, equal to one sixth of the population. The number has quadrupled in 5 years, explained Kim Yon-ho, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University (United States) who obtained the data from the Egyptian telephone operator Orascom Telecom, active in the country through a joint venture involving the same. North Korean government. The number of subscribers includes owners of normal mobile phones, who use them for making phone calls and texting, and those who own a smartphone with more advanced features.
Photo from a Korea Different north
Most of the smartphones used by North Koreans are produced directly in North Korea, by companies that assemble them using components purchased mostly on the Chinese market. They are sold at high prices for the average economic resources of a North Korean, with figures around 400 euros. The most expensive models are more or less blatant copies of Apple's iPhones and have fanciful names like “Arirang Touch”, inspired by a traditional North Korean song.
As with tablets and computers, smartphones in North Korea also use operating systems developed in the country, on which programs and applications are installed to control file exchange, navigation and prevent access to sites outside the country. . Many computers use an operating system called Red Star, but there are also devices that run a modified version of Windows, Microsoft's famous operating system. Tablets and smartphones use a particular installation of Android, customized by the North Korean government.
Smartphones, like computers, cannot be connected to the Internet as we understand it, but to an intranet (internal network) that allows access to a limited number of sites, entirely controlled by the regime. You can then view videos of Kim Jong-un's speeches, see photographs of military parades and exercises conducted in the country, or read news and other information prepared by propaganda. Lighter content includes sites featuring traditional North Korean recipes and an e-commerce system that brings together products from around 150 retailers. There is also a site for organizing holidays, naturally within the borders of North Korea.
Browsing is extremely slow, on the one hand due to obvious technological limitations, and on the other to discourage its excessive use. An ebook – for example the one with the entire biography of Kim Il Sung, considered the founder of the country (and grandfather of Kim Jong-un) – can take several days to be fully downloaded to your device.
The slowness is also due to the fact that almost all online traffic is subjected to constant checks by the regime. The analysis of North Korean devices and programs, sent beyond the borders, confirmed the presence of numerous software for surveillance. Programs can be used to remotely delete files, block sharing of particular documents, and to log use of apps. The scheme also uses a program that can take a screenshot of their screen at any time: when a screenshot is taken, users are notified, but the system does not allow them to delete it anyway.
It often happens that the police stop people on the street, asking to have their smartphone delivered for a random check of the contents. Agents can check screenshots automatically taken by the device, as well as any other information and communications. Smartphone owners are aware that they are under constant surveillance, and fear that their voice conversations may be spied on by the authorities even when they are not using their devices. One woman, who managed to escape from North Korea, told the WSJ that when they were about to have a critical conversation about the government at home, they first moved their cell phone to another room as a precaution, but still unsure that could be a sufficient measure not to be spied on.
Mobile phones are a recent novelty in North Korea. A first network was set up around 2000, but in 2004 the entire project to extend it was halted when it was suspected that an attempt to kill then-dictator Kim Jong-il had been planned via a mobile phone. The regime decided to ban cell phones and the ban remained in place for 5 years, until 2009 when activities were resumed to create a more reliable cellular network.
Koryolink is the name of the main mobile phone operator in North Korea, created with the collaboration of the Egyptian company Orascom. The initiative has not been very profitable so far and the company is having difficulty bringing revenues from North Korean season tickets to Egypt. Behind Orascom is Naguib Sawiris, a businessman who became well known and influential in Italy as well when he acquired Wind between 2005 and 2006, and then sold it to the multinational VEON registered in Bermuda and based in Amsterdam. Sawiris is still present in Italy with Libero Acquisition, a Luxembourg company that controls the majority of Nuova Italiaonline Spa, which includes brands such as Virgilio and Pagine Gialle.
Things for Orascom in North Korea have become even more complicated since the regime founded Byul, another telecommunications company that is effectively competing directly with it in the telephony sector. Byul costs less to subscribers and has plans for using more minutes and SMS. Despite the difficulties, for now Orascom is not interested in leaving North Korea and has repeatedly tried to persuade the regime to organize a merger with Byul. Sawiris was however very skilled in working with a country substantially isolated from the international community, due to the brutality with which he treats his citizens and the aggression towards the outside with his missile and nuclear tests, managing to win contracts and agreements despite the international economic sanctions imposed by the United Nations.
North Korean Polaroids
However, not all citizens of North Korea are completely isolated from abroad. An extremely small number of people, including researchers and members of the regime, can access the Internet as we understand it, albeit with some limitations. In this case the connections are provided by the Chinese operator China Unicom, and more recently by TransTeleCom, a Russian company. Even if the consultation of the sites is freer in this case, the control systems are still maintained to spy on the browser history and other activities carried out.
The progressive diffusion of more modern technological systems could constitute a danger for the North Korean regime, which bases its existence on propaganda and the very strict control of the population. For this reason the concessions are extremely limited and in any case always aimed at having a return, in terms of the possibility of surveillance of the population. Furthermore, the contents disseminated online are mostly propaganda messages such as those disseminated daily by radio, television, newspapers, teachers in schools and officials of the regime around the country.
