◆ Mobile phone penetration rate of 25% but tapping is limited
With the expansion of mobile phones also came the rapid spread of burner phones registered under other people’s names. The method to do so was simple. Cash or rice would be given to a poor person to register a phone under their name. Black-market ‘brokers’ would look for people to lend their names and would also take charge of mobile phone purchases and registration at post offices. Under this system, a person paid to lend their name would not know who possessed the phone registered to them.
The reporting partner explained, “The secret police is orchestrating the crackdown while claiming that the sale of stimulants, smuggling, and other illegal activities using burner phones is on the rise.”
In North Korea, it is common knowledge that phones are tapped, so people use burner phones registered under other people’s names. In other words, a degree of freedom of communication in North Korea came as a direct result of the spread of burner phones. Communicating between burner phones, people could speak freely about politics and even criticize Kim Jong-un with the authorities finding it too difficult to figure out the culprit.
According to the reporting partner, “If you lose your mobile phone, you must report it immediately to the post office so that the Secret Police can be notified at once. After reporting the loss, the phone will be suspended immediately.” In addition, when purchasing a mobile phone, the post office now checks whether the registered name matches that of the user.
On top of that, this year the North Korean authorities are tightening control of mobile phones by checking messages and photos on people’s devices at street checkpoints and banning military personnel from using mobile phones.
Like a candle in the wind, the fate of North Korea’s newfound “freedom of communication” delicately hangs in the balance. (Kang Ji-won)
※ASIAPRESS contacts reporting partners in North Korea through smuggled Chinese mobile phones.
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Editor’s notes on North Korean reporters
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