An examination of a smuggled North Korean smartphone reveals how the state adapts modern consumer technology into an instrument of surveillance and censorship. Operating on a heavily modified version of Android, the device restricts users to domestic software, blocks unauthorized foreign media, and continuously tracks user behavior. While mobile devices have become widespread throughout the country, they operate within a tightly monitored digital ecosystem designed to prevent external information from entering and to record user activity without the possibility of deletion.
- The smartphone runs a customized version of Android that disables standard internet access and blocks foreign applications and services.
- A built-in background monitoring program takes random screenshots throughout the day, saving them into an encrypted log that users cannot delete or alter.
- The operating system uses a cryptographic signature verification mechanism, preventing any media, document, or application from opening unless it has been approved by the state.
- Connectivity is strictly limited to North Korea’s state-run domestic intranet, which provides approved news, educational materials, and state-sanctioned entertainment.
- Attempts to modify the device’s firmware or circumvent security protocols automatically trigger system lockouts or error states.
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Original video here.
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They've learnt from the chynese. They've banned heaps of words and is the worlds biggest surveillance nation.
It is strikingly similar to the Trump phone. Are they both made in the same factory I wonder ?
Worst Grindr location ever.
NK managed to make a smartphone… But yet the Trump phone is "only" "designed with Americans in mind"… Is this irony or what?
Nothing abnormal here. Instead of spying on smartphone holders secretly like every brand, North Korea has decided to be clear with its intentions.
Also, it's hilarious to have an Asian reporter cover that issue (I'm talking about the girl).
Westerners are too afraid to report.
Why does this report remind me of Jack Nicholson?
It is stupidly funny that the Western media cares about privacy but normally accepts that the CIA and the US government spy on everything. The North Koreans certainly did not invade people's privacy and steal oil or kill millions of people to steal resources that belong to other countries, only the US regime can do that and still have the support of the Zionist media.
I wonder if those phones also have the "z bloo-toose dev-ayce" audio
So it’s the same as every phone on earth. It spies on u and sensors u 😂
whats going on with the crayon style tattoos and the grease in the skin? Is this AI uncanny valley slop? Disturbing. Can’t even listen what they’re saying
so, basically no difference to Google or Apple
Looks like she had an accident with the inkpot.
Legends know it was deleted and re uploaded 😂
hey thats a trump mobile..no wander deliveries take so long 😙
Would.
The north koreans are 20 years ahead of
At least we know that they are "spying" on the North Koreans phones….
Not like the US government……
God i love your tattoos ✌🏻✌🏻
Hey, get a face tattoo pls
NK has Kim to control them and SK has their looks obsession and unnecessary honorifics to make close relations look strange!
Intranet with China server
Going to South Korea to work in 2010 I got a South Korean phone packed with SK-only apps, SK TV and shopping and Kpop bookmarks, non-removal carrier bloatware from the SK telecoms company, etc. The North Korean phone doesn't seem all that different or surprising.
US will not be outdone!
And 3 years later u finally show us. This is why i dont like the wsj u show us when u need something
so this confirm north korea is not living in a stone age 😂
I am surprised they are so advanced they can manage these apps so well. Where do these programmers go to school?
it reveals that wsj sends old unsold stock of phones to north korea
The alteration of words is interesting. Reminds me of 1984 and "Newspeak".
It's so depressing to me that a place like North Korea is able to exist in this day and age.
Yeah ok CIA
Not that far off here in the US. We just have Flock and Palantir as corporate fronts. We haven't reached the "shoot em dead for watching that" phase…yet.
Any ideas on testing or letting the public know about Israel technology on our phones? Better start there than North Korea, WSJ we can see your agenda
India deserves dictator like Kim Jong un
Girl, what you got on your face? Shrink wrap?
What's with the ridiculous arm doodles?!
omg patchy tattoos are SO in right now
Wonder about our own governments, what they can see lol
3:06 Uh… but that is how you say "boyfriend" in Korean. "Namchin" is a slang shortened form of that word.
Tech review space is getting really heated up!!
But the world today hates South Korea and loves North Korea. Only when the world 🌍 is inside North Korea…. Will the world truly, understand it's great mistake…. Too little too late.
I'm guessing Trump is impressed by all this monitoring and wants to learn from the fat one.
We don’t know what new technologies are in NK? Should be easy to figure out who makes the tech and work from there.
Complete control of the populace…….
Didn't know they have smartphones at all.
Every smartphone is basically just a cheap knockoff of an iPhone. 😂
It wasn't smuggled, but nice try.
i thought laderach was fancy, cant wait to try this moouse next time im in paris
Use VPN
Sounds similar to the US.