North Korean smartphones replace addressing as comrade and take screenshot every 5 minutes

Recently, BBC journalists published a video review of a smartphone that was smuggled out of North Korea. The device fell into the hands of the South Korean publication Daily NK and became one of the few testimonies of what mobile technology can look like under conditions of total control.

The model of the device in the video is not named, but, as TechSpot notes, the smartphone resembles Huawei or Honor devices in appearance and interface. These brands are not officially represented on the North Korean market, but experts do not rule out that some devices could have entered the country and adapted to local software with strict content filtering.

The smartphone starts up with an animation of the North Korean flag, and the built-in text input censors messages. For example, when you try to enter a South Korean word meaning “older brother” or “boyfriend,” the system automatically replaces it with comrade. The mention of South Korea is transformed into a “puppet state.”

Another detail is that the device takes screenshots of the screen every five minutes and saves them in a hidden folder, access to which is closed to the average user. The BBC suggests that in this way the authorities can monitor exactly how the smartphone is used.

Information on the use of mobile devices in the DPRK is very limited, and it comes mainly from refugees and independent sources. According to them, smartphones in the country have indeed become more widespread, but are accompanied by a number of restrictions: from the lack of access to the global Internet to constant surveillance. The media also report the existence of so-called “youth control squads” that stop passers-by and check the contents of their phones.