News & Insights

Tag: Cell Phones

  • North Korean Urban Centers Rapidly Expanding Digital Payments via Cell Phones, But Rural Areas Lag Behind

    North Korean Urban Centers Rapidly Expanding Digital Payments via Cell Phones, But Rural Areas Lag Behind

    According to a Daily NK source recently, “The Central Committee’s Economic Department instructed the Central Bank through the Cabinet in early April to conduct a nationwide survey on electronic payments and foreign currency transactions. The survey was completed on Apr. 11, and currently, banks in all 13 provinces (and directly-governed cities) are analyzing the results based on reports compiling first-quarter data.”

    According to the findings, urban areas in the capital region, including Pyongyang and Nampo, saw approximately a 10 percentage point increase in the use of mobile phone payment apps based on barcodes and QR codes compared to the previous year. In fact, some stores in Pyongyang now display notices stating, “You only need your mobile phone, no cash required,” indicating that electronic payments are becoming relatively well-established.

    The survey found that electronic payments are most active in Pyongyang, Rason, Sinuiju, and Kaesong, with about 23% of people in these areas responding that “electronic payments are more convenient.” The source reported that “mobile phone payments” are rapidly becoming commonplace, especially among people in their 20s and 30s.

    Meanwhile, the electronic payment system barely functions in state-owned stores in remote areas of Gangwon, Jagang, and North and South Hamgyong provinces. 

    Link to Article

  • The Few Freedoms North Koreans Enjoyed, Vanished After the Pandemic

    The Few Freedoms North Koreans Enjoyed, Vanished After the Pandemic

    The city of Hyesan, just over the river from China, once offered a glimpse of a more open North Korea. Now it exemplifies Kim Jong Un’s mounting authoritarianism. Kim has also used the pretext  of the pandemic to put up new barriers — both literally and figuratively — that have isolated Hyesan residents like never before: New fencing stops people crossing the river. Clampdowns on illicit phone calls made using Chinese cellphone towers have made it much harder for residents to call or text family and friends in China or South Korea, and mindlessly scroll through China’s version of TikTok.

    Link to Article

  • Information Dissemination in North Korea: How People Trust and Share Information

    Information Dissemination in North Korea: How People Trust and Share Information

    Research report into how information is shared and disseminated in North Korean society. Types of information (news, videos, information), and the technology (USB, DVD, mobile, etc.) used to share that Technology, methodology and sources of information, and with whom information is likely to be shared, and where it is likely to be shared.

    Key takeaways are as follows:
    • North Korea’s information control strategy minimizes general social trust. Hence, strangers cannot be trusted, and supposedly neutral sites like outdoor spaces are dangerous for the acquisition of illicit content.

    • Friends and family are trusted sources and conduits of information dissemination. The state has seemingly not been able to co-opt and control family and friendship bonds to any where near the same extent as it has fomented distrust between neighbors and strangers.

    • Markets are less favored for foreign content acquisition than one’s own home or the homes of others, but the least favored place is general outdoor locations.

    • Information dissemination strategies that rely on markets and commercial activities must reckon with the state’s relentless drive to control all activity outside the home.

    • North Koreans are unlikely to share information with strangers, might share with a neighbor, and are likely to share with friends and family. If North Koreans acquire foreign information, they are highly likely to share it with friends and family (roughly 75% of the time).

    • With whom North Koreans share information is influenced by the source.

    • The North Korean state’s information control strategies appear to be adapted to the peculiarities of North Korean society. The North
    Korean state remains dominant at every level of North Korean society.

    https://scdenney.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/for-ngos_information-dissimination-in-north-korea_ward-and-denney_ned-2022.pdf

  • Project Reveal: New research into North Korea’s Digital Control System

    Project Reveal: New research into North Korea’s Digital Control System

    The availability of the Internet and smartphones has transformed societies around the world. Citizens now can access knowledge from around the globe, seek out independent news coverage and voice their opinion with little filter. While state controls exist to varying degrees in some countries, nowhere is the control as complete and restrictive as North Korea.

    While the smartphones available in Pyongyang are little different to those available in other countries, the installation of custom software, a closed communications network and constant monitoring, mean the device in North Korea is useful to consumers for little more than consumption of state-approved propaganda. However, for the state, smartphones constitute a potentially potent vector for remote surveillance at scale. To date, there is no evidence that metadata is being exploited at a large scale for surveillance purposes, but this is an area that must be monitored.

    Much of North Korea’s information control system is based on the same technologies that underpin the Internet and smartphones globally but rather than expanding access to knowledge, North Korean engineers have removed or modified features to block it.

    Research explores use of technology inside North Korea, issues with usage of that technology and methods dissemination. Also explores how North Koreans are getting around attempts to block information dissemination. The result is a cat-and-mouse game involving technology, cell-phones and other devices.

    https://www.lumen.global/reveal-report

  • North Korea’s War Against Outside Information and Culture

    North Korea’s War Against Outside Information and Culture

    In recent years, the North Korean government’s war against outside information and culture has intensified. At its core, this war stems from the government’s belief that outside information and culture, which fall under the umbrella of “non-socialist culture,” causes fissures in people’s loyalty toward the regime, particularly the young generation, and poses an existential threat to society’s status quo.

    https://www.38north.org/2023/05/north-koreas-war-against-outside-information-and-culture