Smartphone smuggled from North Korea revealed shocking evidence of the extreme tactics of regime and linguistic manipulation and plunged light on how the government of Kim Jong-un still tightens its grip over the country’s population.
The BBC device at the end of 2024 and analyzed by experts in technology shows that North Korean smartphones – reduce the heavily modified version of Android – are inserted into tools specifically designed to enforce state ideology, censorship foreign influence and monitor every digital movement of citizens.
Words rewritten by the state
One of the most worrying features is automatic rewriting some phone dates. Writing “South Korea” on the phone is replaced by a “puppet state”, a derogatory term used in the North Korean propaganda.
Similarly, the word “OPPA”, a common South Korean expression for an older brother or friend, is forcibly changed to “comrade”, accompanied by a warning: “This word can only be used to describe your siblings.”
These changes reflect the wider policy of linguistic control of North Korea – by defining the language itself to perception and loyalty.
Constant supervision, no privacy
The phone is also equipped with hidden supervisory functions. It quietly receives screen images every five minutes and stores them in a hidden folder that is inaccessible to users, but is available to the state authorities. The BBC reporter allows officials to monitor individual behavior in real time and maintain complete control over what citizens are doing on their devices.
Access to the Internet is completely blocked. Instead, North Korea users are limited to a closed intranet system known as Kwangmyong, which only organizes the state approved and offers no connection with the outside world.
A rare view of closed mode
Escape from North Korea – so that it was smuggled across the Chinese border through defector networks or underground routes – is a rare window to one of the most secret and strictest controlled modes in the world.
Digital iron curtain
North Korea’s information locking is one of the most comprehensive in the world. Citizens are systematically cut off from foreign reports, media and culture, especially from South Korea, which is officially considered a hostile state. Smartphone software plays a key role in this digital Iron Curtain – passing words, spying users and forming mind in mode of mode.
When North Korea escalates his “information war” against external influence, the smuggled phone stands as a sharp evidence of society, where an occasional conversation is also checked.
(Tagstotranslate) kim jong un
