In Kim Jong Un’s North Korea, anything related to South Korea is strictly banned, with the regime enforcing severe censorship across all media to isolate its citizens from the outside world. Recently, a mobile phone smuggled out of the country has shed new light on how one of the globe’s harshest censorship systems functions.
According to a BBC report, the phone’s surveillance and censorship measures include automatic correction of certain South Korean terms and routine data sharing with authorities, all while users are denied internet access. For example, the word ‘Oppa’—a common term in South Korean culture meaning ‘older brother’ but often used to refer to boyfriends—is automatically changed to ‘Comrade’ on North Korean smartphones. A warning beneath the keyboard further clarifies that the term “can only be used to refer to siblings.”
Similarly, when someone tries to type ‘South Korea,’ the phone replaces it with ‘Puppet State,’ a derogatory phrase used by North Korean officials to describe South Korea as controlled by the US. The phone also takes screenshots every five minutes, saving them in a folder inaccessible to users but available to authorities, enabling detailed monitoring of user activity.
From radios to smartphones, all communication devices in North Korea come pre-installed with state propaganda and are sealed to prevent tampering. Attempting to modify these devices to access external content is considered a serious crime. For most citizens, access to the global internet is effectively nonexistent.
A recent report featuring testimonies from 649 North Korean defectors reveals that Kim Jong Un’s regime has intensified efforts to suppress “Western influence” and block outside information. Officials regularly inspect mobile phones for suspicious contact names, language, and slang linked to South Korean culture.
Kim has banned K-pop music and K-dramas—South Korean popular music and television dramas with widespread global appeal—in a bid to curb foreign cultural influence. A human rights report by South Korea’s Unification Ministry revealed that North Korean authorities publicly executed a 22-year-old man for listening to and sharing K-pop music and films, highlighting the regime’s brutal crackdown on foreign cultural exposure.