A smartphone smuggled out of North Korea is offering a rare – and unsettling – glimpse into the extent of control Kim Jong Un’s regime exerts over its citizens, down to the very words they type. While the device appears outwardly similar to any modern smartphone, its software reveals a far more oppressive reality. The phone was featured in a BBC video, which showed it powering on with an animated North Korean flag waving across the screen. While the report did not specify the brand, the design and user interface closely resembled those of a Huawei or Honor device.
It’s unclear whether these companies officially sell phones in North Korea, but if they do, the devices are likely customized with state-approved software designed to restrict functionality and facilitate government surveillance.
One of the more revealing – and darkly amusing – features was the phone’s automatic censorship of words deemed problematic by the state. For instance, when users typed oppa, a South Korean term used to refer to an older brother or a boyfriend, the phone automatically replaced it with comrade. A warning would then appear, admonishing the user that oppa could only refer to an older sibling.
Typing “South Korea” would trigger another change. The phrase was automatically replaced with “puppet state,” reflecting the language used in official North Korean rhetoric.
Then came the more unsettling features. The phone silently captured a screenshot every five minutes, storing the images in a hidden folder that users couldn’t access. According to the BBC, authorities could later review these images to monitor the user’s activity.
The device was smuggled out of North Korea by Daily NK, a Seoul-based media outlet specializing in North Korean affairs. After examining the phone, the BBC confirmed that the censorship mechanisms were deeply embedded in its software. Experts say this technology is designed not only to control information but also to reinforce state messaging at the most personal level.
Smartphone usage has grown in North Korea in recent years, but access remains tightly controlled. Devices cannot connect to the global internet and are subject to intense government surveillance.
The regime has reportedly intensified efforts to eliminate South Korean cultural influence, which it views as subversive. So-called “youth crackdown squads” have been deployed to enforce these rules, frequently stopping young people on the streets to inspect their phones and review text messages for banned language.
Some North Korean escapees have shared that exposure to South Korean dramas or foreign radio broadcasts played a key role in their decision to flee the country. Despite the risks, outside media continues to be smuggled in – often via USB sticks and memory cards hidden in food shipments. Much of this effort is supported by foreign organizations.
Thats so dystopian, that it can only screenshot every five minutes. Thank god i use windows, and get over 60x the frames-on my double 4k monitor setup. So much better than those filthy north korean peasants. I hope someday they have this freedom.
I’m glad I don’t live in North Korea because I wouldn’t want to traumatize their poor government with pics of my face and body in the morning. There are limits to cruelty.
Think of all the pics they have of people sitting on the toilet.
From… screenshots?
Same
The true source of Microsoft innovations in Windows.
Seriously. This is exactly what people object to about Windows Recall. In its re-released version at least it’s opt-in for now, but it’s still eerily close to this.
I’m totally shocked that a progressive free society like North Korea would tolerate such authoritarian invasiveness!
Did they read 1984 and think, “This is a fantastic idea!”?
Looks around modern day
You uh…you think N Korea is the only ones?
They’re definitely among the worst.
The North Korean government’s totalitarianism predates Ninteen Eighty-Four. North Korea might have been an input for Nineteen Eighty-Four, mind…
The book does predate the North Korean utter totalitarianism. Nineteen Eighty-Four was published in 1949, the year after the Democratic People’s Republic was founded. It was based on the Stalinist Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.
deleted by creator
While the report did not specify the brand, the design and user interface closely resembled those of a Huawei or Honor device.
It’s unclear whether these companies officially sell phones in North Korea, but if they do, the devices are likely customized with state-approved software designed to restrict functionality and facilitate government surveillance.
I remember watching a series of Youtube videos by a guy working in the diplomatic department of a Southeast Asian country who I can’t name, and he took videos while on the sly, his camera (or phone) hidden carefully, showing some glimpses of life in Pyongyang. At one point he and his wife visited the government-run department store and, yeah, it’s pretty much a drab place to be there, you’ll be only buying necessities. However, there’s the special section where certain types of people such as high officials and foreigners are allowed to buy electronics, mostly with hard currency, and the merchandise included smartphones, all of them looked to be Chinese brands.
Sounds like Jaka Parker. Him and his wife are Indonesian diplomats. His videos weren’t really covert. He wore a very obvious bodycam most of the time. His videos are a bit dated now, but they’re still a fascinating glimpse into North Korea. Him and his family were often the only customers in a lot of the shops and restaurants he showed. Presumably they were meant for foreigners and/or elite North Koreans. He even has video of his wife giving birth at a maternity hospital.
Is it really a secret if its known they do this?
A secret no one kept is still technically a secret, an open secret maybe but a secret. I want to know if the people using these phones know about this software
It’s a secret smart phone that was smuggled out of the country by the Top Spies in the “Going to N. Korea to ride the subway” YouTube gang. We sent in some of our stealthiest and most clandestined professional infiltrators. Real Navy Seals meets Mission Impossible type guys. And they came out of N. Korea with this cutting edge “phone that randomly takes pictures while its in your pocket” technology.
Using the country’s state of the art telecommunications system and their cutting edge image processing technology, the Glorious Leader analyzes over 40 Zetabytes of information daily. This dragnet of highly accurate, insanely rigorous, and insidiously nefarious ultra-spyware is then handed over to a crack team of North Korean special agents who utilize their pre-crime tracing technology to break up hundreds of resistance cells every year, long before they can become a threat to the iron fisted communist regime.
It’s the only explanation for why North Koreans haven’t fully revolted and overthrown their despotic leadership. Juche Super-science keeps the rabble in line.
Detectorship of Kim Jong Un
Oh cool they got microsoft recall first
Don’t get any ideas, GOP!
The GOP is just The Soviet’s 2.0, so too late
Except we don’t get free healthcare or government housing or guaranteed employment or-
Too late!
When did Snowden whistleblow? This isn‘t exactly new tech.
2013.
All mobile manufacturers could be doing this too. All of the SoCs are proprietary black boxes as are the modems.
That secret screenshot folder would eat up your storage quite fast, and it would be known, from whistleblowers, workers having to check the screenshots, “proof coming out from it” etc etc etc
There is certainly validity in the concept that no known instance of exploitation exists. However that is only anecdotal. The potential exists. Naïve trust in others has a terrible track record on these scales of ethics. Every instruction and register should be fully documented for every product sold.
An adequate webp image is only a few tens of kilobytes. Most people now have a bridged connection between their home network and cellular, unless they go out of their way to block it. Periodic screenshots are rather crazy. It would be much easier to target specific keywords and patterns.
Well are we putting people in prison with the help of them? A secret screenshot folder nobody can exploit isn’t very useful …
Not saying it can’t be done (you are of course right there), we hand it over freely often, but that the implications are not death to your family.
You dont have to bring them to court with it for it to be useful. It could be used to target individuals then they use more conventional methods of evidence gathering to arrest.
I would guess they arent currently doing it enmasse because that doesnt sound useful either. I would say, solely on a vibes based level its been done by US intelligence. Its really not so different than a wiretap.
I’d be interested in how this documenting could be done. If you’re a manufacturer, you’d probably want to keep everything secret - except what’s needed for a patent for example - otherwise the competition might get an idea of the proprietary things you make in house.
I mean I’m all for it, I just don’t see it happening unless under very strict regulations.
Let’s not forget sim cards are tiny computers as well.
laughs in PinePho–
Sorry, my battery died as I was typing that
I ve heard this a lot, how are modems black boxes?
No hardware documentation whatsoever. We don’t know what registers and instructions exist at the lowest levels.
As far as I am aware, there is no way to totally shut off and verify all cellular connections made, like to pass all traffic through a logged filter.
Sounds like windows in America. Screw ms!
Probly happens in the US too but we won’t know until a whistleblower comes forward and gets a lifetime of solitary confinement for telling us
Yep. Just like with reverse-engineering software and making unintented use of proprietary services, whistleblowing depends at nobody being able to threaten you with jail or worse.
Your country should have made it law when Watergate and such were still fresh in memory. To make such mechanisms not just “de facto”, but “de jure” reality. Because any “de facto” either becomes “de jure” or vanishes without a trace.
EDIT: similar with “adversarial interop” CD was talking about
EDIT2: or Gutenberg and the printing press and the conflicts to ensue…
didn’t google just announce android was gonna do the same thing?
edit: it was microshaft.
NK censors reviewing photos…
“Toilet, toilet, toilet, cat, toilet…”
I’m sure it’s automated. And a screenshot would be what you see on the screen, not what the cameras see
I call that a normal day at Google or Meta
At least you can choose not to use their services. Not much choosing going on in North Korea
North korean are forced to use a smartphone?
The ones who have the ability to own such luxury might be. Sorta like how some jobs require it in other parts of the world.
At least you can choose not to use their services.
I guess a smart phone would be a luxury item in NK. So one could chose not to use one instead of being tracked?
In Germany the government and police use the word Quellentelekommunikationsüberwachung (telecommunication source surveillance) when they express their desire to have a Trojan on someone’s phone - to protect the children of course.
So the phenomenon is not unknown outside of NK.
Edit: fixed translation, thanks Muehe
use the word Quellentelekommunikationsüberwachung
Yeah, right, as if that can be used by humans, or if it’s even a word.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telekommunikationsüberwachung#Quellen-Telekommunikationsüberwachung
It means “telecommunication source surveillance”.
Wow, German is weird.
Meh, essentially it’s just writing “Telecommunicationsourcesurveillance” as a single word without the spaces to indicate it’s a singular thing being referred to (in this case the concept of directly listening on the source device before encryption happens). Might seem weird I guess, but you get used to it pretty quickly.
