Every text watched, every word changed: Inside Kim Jong Un's phone surveillance network

Economic Times

a day ago

A smuggled North Korean smartphone has exposed how tightly the regime monitors and censors its citizens. According to a BBC report, the device blocks South Korean language, autocorrects phrases like 'Oppa' to 'Comrade,' and secretly takes screenshots every five minutes. These images are stored in hidden folders only accessible to state authorities. Radios and phones are sealed against modification, with any exposure to foreign culture seen as a crime. Testimonies from defectors show increasing repression under Kim Jong Un's leadership.
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No room for modifications
Crackdown intensifies under Kim Jong Un
A mobile phone smuggled out of North Korea has revealed alarming new details about the country's surveillance tactics. According to a BBC investigation, smartphones in the country are programmed to automatically censor content, block South Korean language, and spy on their users in real time—without their knowledge. The device, once outside the regime's control, provides a rare look into how far Pyongyang goes to control information and suppress foreign influence.The censorship system is built directly into North Korean smartphones. The phone examined by the BBC showed that common South Korean terms are automatically corrected to fit the regime's ideology. For instance, typing 'South Korea' is immediately changed to 'Puppet State'—a phrase the state uses to characterise Seoul as an American-controlled outpost.Another example is the word 'Oppa', widely used in South Korea to refer to older male friends or boyfriends. On a North Korean phone, the word is forcibly replaced with 'Comrade'. A message on the keyboard warns: 'This word can only be used to refer to siblings.'Surveillance goes beyond word filters. The phone automatically captures a screenshot every five minutes. These images are stored in a hidden folder not visible or accessible to users. Only state officials can retrieve them, allowing continuous monitoring of a user's activities—apps opened, messages typed, and what content is consumed.This covert logging system enables authorities to build a detailed digital profile of individuals without their consent.North Korea's approach to communication technology is tightly locked down. All devices—be it radios, televisions, or smartphones—are pre-configured to receive only government-approved content. Tampering with these settings or trying to access foreign media is classified as a serious criminal offence.Phones are sealed to prevent hardware changes. The internet is entirely off-limits to the general population. The result is a tightly policed digital environment designed to keep citizens ideologically aligned with the regime.According to a human rights report by South Korea's Unification Ministry, the regime's censorship efforts have only grown stronger under Kim Jong Un. The report, based on testimonies from 649 defectors, details how officials routinely inspect phones for slang, contact names, or media suggesting exposure to foreign—especially South Korean—culture.K-pop and Korean dramas are entirely banned. Cultural imports from the South are seen as subversive. One case cited in the report is particularly stark: a 22-year-old man was reportedly executed in public for listening to and sharing South Korean music and films.The government's aim is clear—complete insulation from external cultural influences.North Korea's censorship model is extreme even by authoritarian standards. By embedding surveillance and propaganda tools directly into everyday devices, the regime doesn't just limit what people see—it controls how they think and behave.As the BBC report shows, the phone is not merely a communication tool in North Korea—it is an instrument of control. Every typed word, every action, is tracked. For North Koreans, privacy does not exist.