North Korea is nicknamed the hermit kingdom — a hermetically sealed dictatorship where it's hard for both people and information to get in or out.
That's the fundamental challenge for North Korea, the hermit kingdom whose citizens have been kept in the dark both literally and figuratively. The internet, smartphones, laptops, TV, film, radio exist, but not as most people would be familiar with them. Radio and TV sets are configured so North Koreans can't tune into anything other than the domestic broadcasts, and the internet isn't widely accessible to the population.
A North Korean woman talks on her mobile phone as she skates on an ice rink in Pyongyang, North Korea Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2018.North Korea isn't totally cut off from everyday innovations like mobile data or smartphones. Citizens can buy smartphones that were manufactured in China, but are distributed under a North Korean brand name. The phones look a lot like the cheap Android phones you could buy in any shop — but these come pre-loaded with spyware and software tailored by the state.
Anyone watching a foreign film on their device would have that file tagged and tracked. The tag can track every device on which the file is viewed — so if one person in particular is distributing lots of foreign media with fellow citizens, the regime would probably find out. Described as a"firewall", Williams writes that this is set at the account level. He adds that domestic citizens have phone numbers prefixed with 191-260, while phones for foreigners have numbers that begin with 191-250.
An Amnesty International report also found that a man who watched porn with his wife and another woman was executed, with the entire city summoned to watch his death.Flickr / PrivatenobbyBut citing a source who knows about illegal smuggling between North Korea and China, Williams states that SD cards containing porn can fetch up to $500. That price reflects both the high demand and the extreme risk of smuggling the material across.In this Aug.
BIUK Curious, how different is this to running (brexit) referendums and elections with lies, and misleading the population? Surely the objectives are the same, to deny citizens accurate information with which to live their lives?
TruthMarchesOn Only lets them watch CNN? That's got to be high on the list...