A smartphone smuggled out of North Korea has uncovered shocking evidence of the regime’s extreme surveillance tactics and linguistic manipulation, shedding light on how Kim Jong-un’s government continues to tighten its grip over the country’s population.
The device, obtained by the BBC in late 2024 and analysed by tech experts, reveals that North Korean smartphones—running a heavily modified version of Android—are embedded with tools specifically designed to enforce state ideology, censor foreign influence, and monitor citizens’ every digital move.
Words rewritten by the State
One of the most disturbing features is the phone’s automatic rewriting of certain terms. Typing “South Korea” into the phone replaces it with “puppet state,” a derogatory term used in North Korean propaganda.
Similarly, the word “oppa,” a common South Korean expression for an older brother or boyfriend, is forcibly changed to “comrade,” accompanied by a warning: “This word can only be used to describe your siblings.”
These changes reflect North Korea’s broader policy of linguistic control—redefining language itself to shape perception and loyalty.
Constant surveillance, no privacy
The phone is also equipped with hidden surveillance functions. It silently takes screenshots every five minutes and stores them in a hidden folder that is inaccessible to users but available to state authorities. This, as stated by a reporter for the BBC, allows officials to monitor individual behavior in real-time and maintain complete control over what citizens are doing on their devices.
Internet access is entirely blocked. Instead, North Korean users are restricted to a closed intranet system known as Kwangmyong, which hosts only state-approved content and offers no connection to the outside world.
A rare glimpse into a closed regime
The phone’s escape from North Korea—believed to have been smuggled across the Chinese border via defector networks or underground routes—offers a rare window into one of the world’s most secretive and tightly controlled regimes.
A digital iron curtain
North Korea’s information lockdown is among the most comprehensive in the world. Citizens are systematically cut off from foreign news, media, and culture, particularly from South Korea, which is officially considered an enemy state. The smartphone’s software plays a key role in this digital iron curtain—subverting words, spying on users, and shaping minds in service of the regime.
As North Korea escalates its “information war” against outside influence, the smuggled phone stands as stark evidence of a society where even casual conversation is controlled.