South Korean slang words are banned in North Korea – and the smartphone even takes an undetected screenshot every five minutes, with the images presumably seen by the Communist government
The rules show the terrifying level of repression in the country
A contraband smartphone from North Korea has laid bare the chilling tactics employed by supreme leader Kim Jong Un to maintain his iron-clad grip over citizens. The seemingly innocuous handset is engineered to suppress any hints of South Korean vernacular and even stealthily snaps a screenshot every five minutes. These covert captures are then stashed away in an inscrutable folder, thought to be monitored by the ruling Communist party.
An attempt to input the term “oppa” – a word that nominally means “older brother” in Korean but has gained romantic connotations in modern South Korea – results in an automatic rewrite to “comrade.” The user is promptly reprimanded with a pop-up alerting them that “oppa” is strictly for referring to elder siblings.
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The rules are Orwellian in nature(Image: BBC)
Moreover, typing “South Korea” triggers a shocking autocorrect to “puppet state”. The device was sneakily transported out of the Hermit Kingdom by Daily NK, a Seoul-based news outlet, last year and unearthed during a BBC probe, reports the Daily Star.
North Korean technology and information specialist Martyn Williams imparted to the UK broadcaster that smartphones have become a crucial tool in Pyongyang’s propaganda arsenal.
“Smartphones are now part and parcel of the way North Korea tries to indoctrinate people,” he revealed.
This Stimson Center senior fellow residing in Washington, DC, also cautioned that the cloistered nation is increasingly gaining the upper hand in its informational stranglehold
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International pariahs Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have a close relationship(Image: POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Just this year, Kim elevated the stakes by criminalising the usage of South Korean slang or accents as tantamount to high treason.
‘Youth crackdown squads’ are reportedly patrolling the streets to monitor young North Koreans. Dissident Kang Gyuri, 24, recounted her experiences of being abruptly stopped and scolded for emulating South Korean fashion and hair.
Fortunately, she managed to flee the oppressive regime by boat in 2023 and now resides in South Korea.
Speaking to the BBC, Kang revealed that the regime’s agents would seize her phone to search for any forbidden South Korean terms in her messages.
North Korea outlaws all foreign culture, including television, newspapers, and music. Consequently, reports suggest that thousands of USB drives and micro-SD cards packed with South Korean dramas and K-pop tunes are smuggled across the border monthly, concealed within fruit boxes.
Kang expressed that it was her eventual discovery of life outside North Korea which spurred her decision to defect. She said: “I felt so suffocated, and I suddenly had an urge to leave.
“I used to think it was normal that the state restricted us so much. I thought other countries lived with this control. But then I realised it was only in North Korea.”