Smartphone smuggled out of North Korea exposes terrifying tactics used by Kim Jong Un’s regime to implement control in the country

Last year, someone secretly took a smartphone out of North Korea. This phone has revealed some of the shocking ways the government keeps tight control over its people.

North Korea is ruled by Kim Jong-un and his political party, which has been in power since 1948. For decades, the country has been closed off from the rest of the world, making it very hard to enter or leave. However, some people have managed to escape and share what life is really like there.

BBC News got hold of a North Korean smartphone that was smuggled out of the country. On the outside, the phone looks like any other modern smartphone, but when you start using it, you quickly notice it’s not normal at all.

The phone secretly takes a screenshot every five minutes. These images are saved in a hidden folder that the user cannot access—only government officials can. This means someone is always watching what you’re doing on your phone, even if you don’t realize it.

Certain words are also banned or changed by the phone. When journalist Jean Mackenzie tried to type the word “oppa,” which in South Korea can mean boyfriend, the phone automatically changed it to “comrade.” This shows how North Korea doesn’t allow South Korean slang, and it only lets that word be used in a family context, like calling your actual brother.

Even typing “South Korea” into the phone triggers censorship—the phone automatically changes it to “puppet state.” This reflects how North Korea sees South Korea as controlled by outside forces, especially the United States.

For years, people in South Korea have tried to sneak media into the North. They’ve used creative methods like hiding USB drives with South Korean TV shows and music in floating bottles sent across the border.

The North Korean government is very strict about outside media. In fact, there were reports last year that 30 teenagers were executed just for watching South Korean dramas. That’s how serious the censorship is.

Martyn Williams, an expert on North Korean technology, told the BBC that smartphones are now being used as tools for brainwashing citizens. He said the government needs this level of control because many of the stories told about Kim Jong-un and his family are not true. The government relies on lies to keep its grip on power.

A woman named Kang Gyuri, who escaped from North Korea in 2023, also shared her experience. She said living there felt like being trapped. At the time, she thought it was normal for a government to have so much control over its people, but after escaping to South Korea, she realized that kind of control is not normal anywhere else.