North Korea Expands 6.35 Million-User Smartphone Network as Kim Tightens Digital Control
Updated
Updated · 매일경제 · Jul 27
North Korea Expands 6.35 Million-User Smartphone Network as Kim Tightens Digital Control
2 articles · Updated · 매일경제 · Jul 27
Summary
Washington Post analysis of two new North Korean smartphones shows Pyongyang residents using mobile banking, QR payments, taxi-hailing, medicine delivery and menstrual-tracking apps inside a sealed domestic network.
6.35 million mobile subscriptions and a 4G network have enabled that spread, but the services also give authorities real-time visibility into money flows, prices, taxes and distribution systems that cash transactions obscure.
State-approved content and apps reinforce the same control: the Manbang video service offers Disney films for "English learning" while blocking South Korean dramas, and drug-delivery software records medicine distribution to deter theft.
$750 handsets remain largely luxury goods for Pyongyang elites, underscoring that the digitization is not an opening to the outside world but a controlled convenience aimed at monitoring residents and shoring up regime loyalty.