A smartphone smuggled out of North Korea is offering a rare – and unsettling – glimpse into the extent of control Kim Jong Un’s regime exerts over its citizens, down to the very words they type. While the device appears outwardly similar to any modern smartphone, its software reveals a far more oppressive reality. The phone was featured in a BBC video, which showed it powering on with an animated North Korean flag waving across the screen. While the report did not specify the brand, the design and user interface closely resembled those of a Huawei or Honor device.
It’s unclear whether these companies officially sell phones in North Korea, but if they do, the devices are likely customized with state-approved software designed to restrict functionality and facilitate government surveillance.
One of the more revealing – and darkly amusing – features was the phone’s automatic censorship of words deemed problematic by the state. For instance, when users typed oppa, a South Korean term used to refer to an older brother or a boyfriend, the phone automatically replaced it with comrade. A warning would then appear, admonishing the user that oppa could only refer to an older sibling.
Typing “South Korea” would trigger another change. The phrase was automatically replaced with “puppet state,” reflecting the language used in official North Korean rhetoric.
Then came the more unsettling features. The phone silently captured a screenshot every five minutes, storing the images in a hidden folder that users couldn’t access. According to the BBC, authorities could later review these images to monitor the user’s activity.
The device was smuggled out of North Korea by Daily NK, a Seoul-based media outlet specializing in North Korean affairs. After examining the phone, the BBC confirmed that the censorship mechanisms were deeply embedded in its software. Experts say this technology is designed not only to control information but also to reinforce state messaging at the most personal level.
Smartphone usage has grown in North Korea in recent years, but access remains tightly controlled. Devices cannot connect to the global internet and are subject to intense government surveillance.
The regime has reportedly intensified efforts to eliminate South Korean cultural influence, which it views as subversive. So-called “youth crackdown squads” have been deployed to enforce these rules, frequently stopping young people on the streets to inspect their phones and review text messages for banned language.
Some North Korean escapees have shared that exposure to South Korean dramas or foreign radio broadcasts played a key role in their decision to flee the country. Despite the risks, outside media continues to be smuggled in – often via USB sticks and memory cards hidden in food shipments. Much of this effort is supported by foreign organizations.
does anyone really think our freedom phones are far from this?
Maybe the western world can be given some credit on being a tad more subtle, but overall the difference here are in tecnique, not goals
Its funny, a screenshot every 5 minutes that might be reviewed later on if needed sounds less intrusive than western efforts like google, amazon, etc.
Tracking someone’s history through screenshots sounds like a fucking nightmare for the person doing the searching.
It’s evil, but also a PITA for the analyst.
Yes, because here in the capitalist USA I am free to choose what phone and carrier I use, and what OS and software my phone have on them. The free market decided that I should have access to bootloader unlockable phones with open source OS and zero shitty Facebook apps spying on me.
Tell me you are blind to privilege without telling me you are blind to privilege…
I get what you are saying but claiming that Capitalism and the Free Market got you there is laughable.
A shit ton of people in the USA do not actually have a choice in carrier and choice of phone seriously depends on how rich you are, the spread is wide!
More importantly, how many people do you think have the tech knowledge (or access to pay) to get an open source OS in their phones?
Yes, you captured yourself perfectly… I couldn’t have done it better
Can you provide more information on how western governments are spying?
In the westwe call it Microsoft Recall
No that’s totally different… it will be used the same way but it takes much less manual work to perform
That’s still 60 times fewer screenshots than Microsoft Recall. SIXTY.
Yeah, but at least it’s our corporate overlords and not the government!!
/s
Unless the government wants to buy the data in which case it’s just good capitalism
They won’t even buy it, they’ll just find a zero day and steal the data while everyone is none the wiser.
Snowden may disagree with that.
Sounds like windows recall…
Better than recall. No need for special hardware like an NPU, nor does it keep asking you to sign in.
/s
An NPU isn’t required for something like recall, it just makes running local models more efficient.
frequently stopping young people on the streets to inspect their phones and review text messages for banned language
I’m really tired of people saying “both sides are the same” when it comes to western capitalist exploitation vs eastern totalitarian authoritarianism.
It’s ironically so privileged to even make the comparison because if it were the same, you wouldn’t have been allowed to make this comment.
I didn’t say both sides are the same. I made a stupid joke about a garbage operating system and the garbage company that runs it.
And your example of stopping people on the streets to inspect their phones doesn’t really do a great job at making the argument you’re trying to make. We have ICE running around and throwing people into contracted prisons even when they have proof of citizenship. We are trafficking people to foreign concentration camps. We are rocketing at light speed to a techno fascist authoritarian state and the level of surveillance we are under is increasing at a mind boggling pace.
So we aren’t the same, and the people currently in charge are striving to make the differences smaller every day.
In addition to your point, literally just two days ago I saw an article about a Texas sheriff running a search through a nation-wide network of license plate readers to track down a woman suspected of having an abortion.
Oh OK they didn’t stop her on the street, they just queried the panopticon system that tracked her movement as much as possible. Want to protest a genocide your state and university are sponsoring? Sorry, MIT will muzzle you and now you are now forbidden from giving the commencement address. Wouldn’t want to offend the dear leader in the white house.
I made a stupid joke
Nah, the joke was fine. They overreacted.
I agree, western capitalist exploitation is far worse, but privileged liberals in the imperial core aren’t the main victim, and they only care if their billionaire owned media tells them to.
Although I dislike recall as much as anyone else, this is quite a bit worse.
From the article:
Then came the more unsettling features. The phone silently captured a screenshot every five minutes, storing the images in a hidden folder that users couldn’t access. According to the BBC, authorities could later review these images to monitor the user’s activity.
How? If authorities seize your computer, don’t you think the recall screenshots is the first they will look at?
For sure. But at least those images aren’t kept in a secret location where users can’t see or delete them. Even if Recall makes this harder, there’s a meaningful difference here.
That said, neither one is doing you any privacy favors…
Sure, but at least from a technical POV those screenshots are accessible to the users, can be deleted/manipulated and the user is not forced to have the feature enabled
I don’t see how this is worse.
Probly happens in the US too but we won’t know until a whistleblower comes forward and gets a lifetime of solitary confinement for telling us
Yep. Just like with reverse-engineering software and making unintented use of proprietary services, whistleblowing depends at nobody being able to threaten you with jail or worse.
Your country should have made it law when Watergate and such were still fresh in memory. To make such mechanisms not just “de facto”, but “de jure” reality. Because any “de facto” either becomes “de jure” or vanishes without a trace.
EDIT: similar with “adversarial interop” CD was talking about
EDIT2: or Gutenberg and the printing press and the conflicts to ensue…
didn’t google just announce android was gonna do the same thing?
edit: it was microshaft.
After examining the phone, the BBC confirmed that the censorship mechanisms were deeply embedded in its software.
Remember, this could happen in your country.
Its always “It Can’t Happen Here” until it does.
I’m glad these exists, but remember that these only work as long as device manufacturers don’t lock the bootloaders.
Your country’s government could pass a law that requires bootloaders to be locked for “national security” reasons, and there’d probably not be much resistance since most people don’t even use custom roms. (Looking at you, USA and the autocratization)
Then i guess i won’t have a phone anymore :/
“It Can’t Happen Here”
Unironically a good book about fascism happening in the US, and was written before 1984 and other dystopian novels that were largely reactionary to the USSR.
What do you mean “could”? It does
Removed by mod
The irony of a comment about censorship being censored is really something.
I had a friend paraphrase the plot of fahrenheit 451 for me, because I haven’t read it. Talk about ironic!
On another note, I need to read more
I did this the other day but didnt realize the irony at the time…
Whaaaat? Are they using Windows smartphones with Copilot in Korea? 😮
Windows Recall is approved by the supreme leader.
That’s Best KoreaTM to you!
lemmygrad and hexbear users now scavenging for windows phones
Bill Gates is actually a based ally!
Microsoft Recall: Amateurs!
Oh Windows recall beta.
The true source of Microsoft innovations in Windows.
Seriously. This is exactly what people object to about Windows Recall. In its re-released version at least it’s opt-in for now, but it’s still eerily close to this.
It’s funny, because it’s their government’s version of knockoff spyware, and decades out of date. Western governments get a live feed out of their backdoors.
Oh yeah, have there been reports on this ?
(Not trying to shut you down, I’m genuinely curious)
Yeah, there have been various leaks over the years that trickle out. Supposedly they’ve banned companies from operating in the US for refusal to comply with backdoor demands (Hawei, Kaspersky), some reports of backdoors built right into both Intel & AMD processors, some vague stuff that’s come out about backdoors in Windows, etc. Even when the companies refuse to comply, there’s been reports of US intelligence going into factories or intercepting deliveries to install spy chips into hardware. I recall there was a local ISP provider somewhere in the mid-west that got shut down for refusing to install spy devices in their facilities.
Really a lot of this was confirmed as far back as Snowden. And plenty of whistleblowers and leaks since.
There’s an extremely powerful backdoor in every processor/chipset. Intel named it “Management Engine” and AMD “Secure Technology”.
From the Wikipedia page on Management Engine:
The ME has its own MAC and IP address for the out-of-band management interface, with direct access to the Ethernet controller; one portion of the Ethernet traffic is diverted to the ME even before reaching the host’s operating system.
ME has Serial over LAN, so it’s possible that attackers can have a more intimate access to your hardware than your Operating System.
I imagine other manufacturers have similar frameworks.
Oh cool they got microsoft recall first
I love how, for everyone, media literacy seemingly goes straight out the window the moment North Korea is mentioned. I remember a few years back every mainstream media outlet reporting that sarcasm was banned in NK, and that everyone had to get the same haircut as Kim Jong Un. Journalism at its finest.
Then you get these two madlads who go and find out…
The news clip commentary:
The full video:
Holy shit actual media criticism and analysis on North Korea. Never thought I’d see this day.
The little clip with the meta-commentary on news stories commenting about them was hilarious yet insightful, so I definitely have to watch the full documentary they’re referencing (EDIT: especially if it’s just the 20 minute video you linked. That’s the full video? I thought I heard the word documentary so thought it would be longer).
The best boys
All mobile manufacturers could be doing this too. All of the SoCs are proprietary black boxes as are the modems.
laughs in PinePho–
Sorry, my battery died as I was typing that
That secret screenshot folder would eat up your storage quite fast, and it would be known, from whistleblowers, workers having to check the screenshots, “proof coming out from it” etc etc etc
There is certainly validity in the concept that no known instance of exploitation exists. However that is only anecdotal. The potential exists. Naïve trust in others has a terrible track record on these scales of ethics. Every instruction and register should be fully documented for every product sold.
An adequate webp image is only a few tens of kilobytes. Most people now have a bridged connection between their home network and cellular, unless they go out of their way to block it. Periodic screenshots are rather crazy. It would be much easier to target specific keywords and patterns.
Well are we putting people in prison with the help of them? A secret screenshot folder nobody can exploit isn’t very useful …
Not saying it can’t be done (you are of course right there), we hand it over freely often, but that the implications are not death to your family.
You dont have to bring them to court with it for it to be useful. It could be used to target individuals then they use more conventional methods of evidence gathering to arrest.
I would guess they arent currently doing it enmasse because that doesnt sound useful either. I would say, solely on a vibes based level its been done by US intelligence. Its really not so different than a wiretap.
I’d be interested in how this documenting could be done. If you’re a manufacturer, you’d probably want to keep everything secret - except what’s needed for a patent for example - otherwise the competition might get an idea of the proprietary things you make in house.
I mean I’m all for it, I just don’t see it happening unless under very strict regulations.
Let’s not forget sim cards are tiny computers as well.
I ve heard this a lot, how are modems black boxes?
No hardware documentation whatsoever. We don’t know what registers and instructions exist at the lowest levels.
As far as I am aware, there is no way to totally shut off and verify all cellular connections made, like to pass all traffic through a logged filter.
So glad that censorship bull shift can’t happen in a ducking free democracy! /s
I don’t know that ducks have democracy
