Some North Koreans find ways around govt smartphone controls, report says

Women wearing traditional hanbok dresses walk along a street in Pyongyang on April 25, 2022, as the country celebrates the 90th founding anniversary of the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army. Smartphones have proliferated in North Korea, but very few people are allowed to access the global Internet. — AFP

SEOUL: Despite North Korea intensifying efforts to stop citizens from seeing information coming from outside the country, a few tech savvy individuals are managing to circumvent tight government controls on smartphones, a US-based group said in a report.

“The scale of the hacking still appears to be minor, but recent changes to North Korean law indicate national authorities view it as a serious problem,” Lumen, a US-based non-profit founded to provide North Koreans with access to uncensored information and media, said in report issued this week.