Hol
Well-known
A phone smuggled out of North Korea has offered startling insights on how the highly secretive country, led by Kim Jong Un, has a strict ban on all things South Korean and how it enforces extreme censorship across all types of media to keep its citizens from knowing what the outside world is really like. The country's "supreme leader" maintains the restrictions to protect North Koreans from the “malign influence” of Western culture.
From automatically changing certain South Korean words to regularly sharing user data with the authorities, a BBC report shows how North Korea uses smartphones to watch and control its people, even though they are completely cut off from the internet.
For example, the word "Oppa", which is popular in South Korean culture and often used for boyfriends (though it literally means "older brother"), is autocorrected to "Comrade" on the North Korean smartphone. Immediately, a warning pops up right below the keypad telling users that "this word can only be used to refer to siblings."
Similarly, if someone tries to type "South Korea," the phone autocorrects it to "Puppet State"--a term North Korea uses for South Korea, claiming it's controlled by the US. The smartphone also secretly takes screenshots every five minutes, but the images are not accessible to the users. Only the authorities can access them, allowing them to keep a close eye on everything users do, the BBC reported.
BTW, the link is to a website that hits you with a pop up ad every other second
From automatically changing certain South Korean words to regularly sharing user data with the authorities, a BBC report shows how North Korea uses smartphones to watch and control its people, even though they are completely cut off from the internet.
For example, the word "Oppa", which is popular in South Korean culture and often used for boyfriends (though it literally means "older brother"), is autocorrected to "Comrade" on the North Korean smartphone. Immediately, a warning pops up right below the keypad telling users that "this word can only be used to refer to siblings."
Similarly, if someone tries to type "South Korea," the phone autocorrects it to "Puppet State"--a term North Korea uses for South Korea, claiming it's controlled by the US. The smartphone also secretly takes screenshots every five minutes, but the images are not accessible to the users. Only the authorities can access them, allowing them to keep a close eye on everything users do, the BBC reported.
BTW, the link is to a website that hits you with a pop up ad every other second
