Some weeks ago I wrote an article here at Steemit about how we in the Western World help Kim Jong Un to keep his power in North Korea; Our support to exploit North Koreans while we support the regime with the necessary funds they require. The article "Kim Jong-Un's MAJOR VICTORY! Trump TREMENDOUSLY LOST THE GAME! WHAT NEXT?" you can find here.

Recently one of our award winning news stations "RTL Z" did some solid digging into North Korean's Internet. They found some very interesting information I share with you in this post. The article was originally published in the Dutch language (here), for which I present you an English translated version below.

Since we get so little information about North Korea in the Western World, and the information we get may be more propaganda by the North Korean government than anything else, and may also be twisted by our own media, I invite those who have ties with North Korea in one or the other way, to bring us more real information and truths about North Korea.

The North Korea Internet: A Lot of Censorship and Sometimes Porn

The term 'open internet' is an unknown term for the average North Korean. But there is actually an internet connection in the isolated country: the elite is checking Facebook and watching porn at night, the rest of the residents have to deal with a mountain of censorship and propaganda.

'Kim Jong Un oversees launch ballistic missiles'
'Kim Jong Un visits farm'
'Kim Jong Un is looking at new medical plant'

These are some headlines from the official North Korea news website, available to anyone to see, also for us in the western world. It is one of the few websites North Korea residents have access to.

Kwangmyong

The websites can be visited via North Korea's own internet, called Kwangmyong. You cannot call that internet because it only gives access to few websites. The rest of the open internet, as we know it, is blocked for ordinary citizens.

Kwangmyong offers dozens of websites. For example, you can browse to a site with all kinds of recipes for dishes or visit the website of the University of Pyongyang. There is also a North Korean email service available and you can book flights with Air Koryo.

Almost all websites have been developed in country, but the website of the North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs launched in June - remarkable - makes use of WordPress: the system used by millions of websites from all over the world.

Computers and Smartphones

Most North Koreans visit these websites through a fixed computer with internet connection, such as at the library, university or internet cafe. Almost none of the 25 million citizens have a computer at home.

Strikingly enough, there are 4 million smartphones in circulation, according to research conducted by Recorded Future Security Company, which monitors North Korea's Internet traffic. These smartphones are connected to the national 3G network that gives them access to Kwangmyong's websites.

image: the news website of North Korean's newspaper Rodong eruit

North Korean Androids

The smartphones sold in North Korea are made in China and are then sold by the national provider Koryolink. These devices run on a customised version of Android that includes a set of standard apps, such as a browser, a phone app and text app.

"If you want to install a new app, you go to a special store", says Erick Tseng, Director of Mobile Products at Facebook. He spent eight days in North Korea and wrote in an extensive blog post that North Koreans have to pay to have the shop install a new, country-approved app.

Kim Jong Un has placed equipment along the border with China, blocking connecting to smartphones to the Chinese mobile networks. Sometimes it works, but then the Internet remains limited: China also determines what people in the country can and cannot see on the web.

image: Kim Jong Un has a smartphone, rumours say a HTC Butterfly

Illegal Content

Nevertheless, a small part of the North Koreans succeed in gaining access to prohibited content, such as world news, Hollywood movies and South Korean soap series. This is mainly done by smuggling usb sticks. The Flash Drives for Freedom project of the Nonprofit Human Rights Foundation plans to transport more than 50,000 usb sticks into North Korea this year.

The usb sticks are smuggled into the country with drones. The person who find usb stick usually receives a small fee. The Human Rights Foundation request people to donate their old usb sticks, where alongside Western movies and series, Wikipedia articles and interviews with North Korean deserters are stored.

If you get caught with such a usb stick or these files on your phone, the North Korean government will send you to a workcamp for a few years. "Computers and smartphones are equipped with software that allows tracking what files are copied from what phone", writes The Economist. "That way, they try to catch distributors of these usb sticks."

image: Students having computer lessons in Pyongyang

Facebook and Porn

However, it is possible for the elite to access the normal internet. Who the elite is, is a bit unclear. Some investigations speak from 'circles around the leaders of North Korea' to 'a few families'.

However, as research conducted by Recorded Future shows, some North Koreans are actually getting public internet via the internet cable that runs along the border with China.

And what do North Koreans do on the internet? Well: largely the same as we westerners. They regularly check Facebook and Twitter, buy at Amazon and watch videos on Youku Tudou, a kind of Chinese YouTube.

In addition, this small group of North Koreans also likes games and porn. According to Recorded Future, they mainly play the free wargame "World of Tanks".

The porn preference of North Koreans can be deduced from Pornhub statistics. According to the porn site, North Koreans are mainly looking for Chinese, Mongolian and Korean women, but also Swedish ladies and Japanese massages are popular.

Request to You

Since we get so little information about North Korea in the Western World, and the information we get may be more propaganda by the North Korean government than anything else, and may also be twisted by our own media, I invite those who have ties with North Korea in one or the other way, to bring us more real information and truths about North Korea.

sources [1]

image sources [1][2][3][4]

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