North Korea, one of the most isolated and secretive country in the world, announced that it has as a multifunction phone designed by him, “Arirang , “named after a Korean folk song.
Its existence was revealed during a factory visit by North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un this weekend, said the official agency KCNA Tuesday, August 13. During the visit, the officer was informed of the “performance, quality and packaging of the mobile phone Arirang,” according to KCNA.
According to analysts, this smartphone, based on the Android operating system from Google, is probably made in neighboring China, an ally of North Korea.Photos released by KCNA shows workers inspecting and packaging of phones but no chains.
New means of monitoring
Some analysts argue that this phone will allow authorities to monitor the conversations of citizens.
Although that the North Koreans live in probably the most cut in the world, the North is not a total desert area of information technology.
An internal intranet existed since 2002, some government agencies have their own websites, and mobile phones were introduced in 2008 through a joint venture with the Egyptian company Orascom. The two million mobile phone subscribers (out of a population of 24 million) can thus be called, but not call outside the borders.
Internet reserved for super eliteEconomic developments in North Korea are allowed if they do not threaten the communist regime in which power is transmitted from father to son for three generations.
The intranet, already accessible to very few, is cut off from the world and publishes only information approved by the government. The internet truly is for a super-elite, a thousand people at most.
For 95% of the population, there is no laptop or intranet.But the boundaries are not as tight as before. Chinese phones smuggled enable call abroad. DVD, MP3 and USB, also smuggled are all open windows on the outside, despite the risks if we get caught.
(With AFP)