Behind closed doors, North Korea’s most important political meetings took place last week. As usual, only a trickle of information emerged. However, experts agree on one thing: the regime appears to have considerable confidence in the country’s economic development. That optimism isn’t limited to rhetoric, but translates into visible changes.
A Digital Transformation Underway
North Korea is undergoing a digital transformation. More North Koreans than ever before have access to smartphones, apps, and digital services. These offer not only entertainment and convenience but also create economic opportunities and new possibilities for control.
Pandemic as a Catalyst
The digital development accelerated shortly after the coronavirus pandemic. During the pandemic, the regime managed to seal off its borders hermetically. Aside from essential goods, such as food, nothing entered the country, including digital hardware from China.
When the borders cautiously reopened, an unexpected digital leap forward followed: software and apps that had been developed for years were ready to be rolled out and installed on new phones on a large scale.
A Conscious Strategy
According to researcher Marty Williams, founder of NK Tech Lab and a specialist in North Korean technology, the country now has at least 24 smartphone brands. The devices are almost all produced in China but receive their own brand name and national software in North Korea.
Apps aren’t freely downloadable via an app store, as in the rest of the world. Anyone wanting to install apps must go to special IT offices, spread throughout the country. There, people can find hundreds of apps available, from dictionaries and games to streaming services.
Williams, who regularly examines phones via North Korean defectors, sees this as a deliberate strategy. “If the regime wants to prevent foreign entertainment, it must offer a controlled alternative.”
The wide range of domestic entertainment apps is intended to maintain citizens satisfied without exposure to popular foreign entertainment, such as South Korean dramas and films. The border with China is still more strictly controlled than before the pandemic, making this type of smuggling more difficult.
Tackling Corruption
Digitalization is also being used to make economic processes more efficient and limit corruption. Williams discovered a health app offering more than 3000 products, including medicines.
Digital food coupons have also been found on phones. “Such systems give the government detailed insight into transactions: who sells, buys, and receives what becomes more visible. And that makes bribery, corruption, and other illegal practices more difficult,” says Williams.
The structural nature of this development is evident in legislation instructing ministries to offer more government services digitally. Further digitalization of the economy appears to be a conscious policy choice, also because it offers the regime opportunities to control people even more.
Surveillance
Even as the hardware almost all comes from China, North Korea develops the software largely itself. Smartphones have features that automatically capture screenshots, screenshots that users cannot delete themselves but that can be viewed by the government. This is a clear example of how digital innovation and surveillance go hand in hand.
According to Williams, the rapid expansion of smartphones shows that the government has confidence in its ability to control the digital ecosystem. “North Korea could also function without massive smartphone distribution, but deliberately chooses to allow technology, as long as it remains controllable.”
Limits to Electricity
However, there appear to be limits to the digital advance. While the country recently rolled out a 4G network and digital applications are increasing rapidly in number, there are no indications that electricity production is growing significantly. Advanced digital systems require large amounts of electricity, which may limit further large-scale digitalization.
The digital revolution in North Korea shows a paradox: technology stimulates economic modernization and convenience, but simultaneously strengthens state control. The regime seems to trust that modernization and strict political control can be combined well. Perhaps it has learned lessons from its neighbor and ally, China.
