North Korean leader Kim Jong-un delivers a speech during a congratulatory visit to the Korean Workers' Party Central Cadre School on the occasion of its 80th anniversary on June 1. [KCNA]
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un delivers a speech during a congratulatory visit to the Korean Workers' Party Central Cadre School on the occasion of its 80th anniversary on June 1. [KCNA]

North Korea's mobile phone subscriber base is approaching 7 million as smartphone adoption spreads rapidly across the country — but the devices function as digital shackles, with global internet access blocked entirely and extreme word-censorship features built directly into the hardware, a new analysis has revealed.

The Wall Street Journal published a video Friday (local time) based on its exclusive acquisition and analysis of the Hayang 701, a mid-range North Korean smartphone.

Recent assessments by the Stimson Center's 38 North program and the International Telecommunication Union estimate North Korea's mobile subscriber count at between 6.5 million and 7 million — representing 25 to 30 percent of the total population. At least 24 smartphone brands are now available inside the country, reflecting the outward growth of its mobile market.

In practice, the Hayang 701 used in the analysis offers a level of convenience comparable to mainstream smartphones.

The device supports voice calls and hosts its own application ecosystem. A financial app that enables QR code-based payments and money transfers — similar to China's Alipay — stands out among the offerings.

The payment screen is divided into "domestic currency" and "foreign currency" sections, allowing dollar transactions, and a taxi-hailing function is also built in. The device includes a word-processing app modeled on Microsoft Word, as well as a soccer game featuring Lionel Messi. South Korea and the United States, however, are deliberately excluded from the game's list of selectable countries.

Despite the range of convenient features, access to the devices remains extremely limited for ordinary citizens. Ryu Seong-hyeon, a North Korean army defector who appeared in the video, said the Hayang 701 sells on the black market for about $250. "Given that a North Korean military officer earns less than $1 a month, ownership is essentially confined to the wealthy," he said.

The most striking aspect of the device is its densely layered ideological control system. Despite being called a smartphone, pressing the Wi-Fi button does not activate wireless internet — the device connects only to a domestic intranet controlled by North Korean authorities.

The real-time censorship system that activates with every keystroke borders on the obsessive. Typing the name of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un automatically renders it in bold, while entering "Republic of Korea" instantly replaces it with "(forbidden word)." Searches confirmed that typing "South Korea" triggers an automatic forced substitution — the text is replaced with "puppet territory."

"Namchin" — a Korean abbreviation for "boyfriend" that spread inside North Korea through the influence of K-dramas — is also automatically corrected to the full word. The device's surveillance capabilities are equally aggressive: the Hayang 701 periodically captures screenshots and saves them automatically to a folder labeled "screen history." Users have no way to disable the feature or delete the saved files.

"There is absolutely no way to watch K-dramas or any South Korean or American content on this device," Ryu said. Under North Korean law, anyone caught viewing South Korean or American content faces five years of hard labor, while those who distribute it can be executed by firing squad.

The Wall Street Journal noted that smartphone use in North Korea has recently expanded beyond Pyongyang to the rest of the country, but added that such use "takes place only within the limits set by an all-seeing state."


why37@heraldcorp.com