Smuggled North Korean phone exposes the tech powering Kim Jong Un's digital iron grip

A smartphone smuggled out of North Korea reveals the regime's extreme digital censorship, including auto-correcting politically sensitive terms and covertly taking screenshots of user activity, as detailed by a BBC investigation. The features show the lengths of Kim Jong Un's efforts to control information and indoctrinate citizens via their own devices.

Comrade by default: The smuggled device forces users into ideological compliance, auto-correcting the common South Korean endearment "oppa" to "comrade" and relabeling "South Korea" as "puppet state." More invasively, it covertly snaps screenshots every five minutes, storing them in a hidden folder presumably for state surveillance.

Digital thoughtcrimes: This technological control aims to shield citizens from outside realities, as "so much of the mythology around the Kim family is made up," Martyn Williams, a North Korea tech expert, told the BBC. The regime has intensified its crackdown with laws since 2020 imposing severe penalties for consuming foreign media, and in 2023, even using South Korean slang became a criminal offense policed by "youth crackdown squads."

Culture as contraband: Despite the risks, South Korean K-dramas and news, often smuggled on USB drives by groups like Unification Media Group, fuel desires for freedom, as one defector explained to the BBC. However, these information channels are threatened by US aid cuts, a move Sokeel Park of Liberty in North Korea told the BBC was "short-sighted," though he remains hopeful about information's power to "change the nature of the country".

Reading Recap:

• BBC's smuggled phone deep dive

• North Korea's auto-correct politics

• Human cost of digital control