# Cell Phones in North Korea ## North Koreans Rely on Smuggled Cellphones to Connect to the Outside World https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/27/world/asia/north-korea-china-mobile-phones.html https://archive.fo/LYjMP [[The New York Times]] on [[2016-03-26]] (Selected excerpts) “We barely spoke 10 minutes before the connection was suddenly lost,” Ms. Ju, 25, said, describing the 2009 episode during a recent interview. “My father lost sleep that night, fearing that I might have been caught by North Korean soldiers.” Smuggled-in Chinese mobile phones, which enable North Koreans near the border with China to gain access to its mobile networks, are an increasingly vital bridge between the North and the outside world. ### Crackdown In 2014, Mr. Kim ordered his government to tighten “mosquito nets” to block foreign information from slipping in and prevent his people from communicating with outsiders and fleeing. The number of North Korean defectors arriving in South Korea, once as high as 2,914 in 2009, plummeted to 1,276 last year. Mr. Kim also strengthened a crackdown on mobile phones smuggled from China, deploying more soldiers and modern surveillance devices along the border to jam signals or trace them to those using the banned phones. In [a 57-page report](https://archive.fo/o/LYjMP/https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2016/03/north-korea-connection-denied/) titled “Connection Denied,” [Amnesty International](https://archive.fo/o/LYjMP/topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/a/amnesty_international/index.html?inline=nyt-org "More articles about Amnesty International") said this month that North Koreans caught making calls on the phones could face criminal charges. If they call someone in South Korea or other countries labeled enemies, they could face charges of treason as well as incarceration in prison camps. ## How a sanctions-busting smartphone business thrives in North Korea [Article](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-smartphones-insight-idUSKBN1WB01Z) by [[Reuters]] on [[2019-09-25]] (Selected excerpts) ### Cannot install "unidentified programs" North Korean phones can only be used to call domestic numbers and have some unique security features. ==Downloading or transferring files is severely restricted. Reuters found a warning pop-up when installing an “unidentified program” on the Pyongyang 2418 smartphone stating: “If you install illegal programs, your phone can malfunction or data will get destroyed.”== ==“North Korea puts algorithms and software in its mobile phones to keep data from being copied or transferred,” said Lee Young-hwan, a South Korean software expert studying North Korean smartphones.== ### Surveillance The regime has also developed a home-grown surveillance tool on mobile phones, according the U.K.-based cybersecurity company Hacker House. When a user accesses illegal or non-state approved media, an alert is generated and stored inside the phone. A modified version of Android also conducts surveillance and tracks users, Hacker House said. ### Mobile phone adoption In a survey this year of 126 North Korean defectors who had used mobile phones, more than 90% said cellphones improved their daily lives and about half said they used them for market activities. “Millions of people are using mobile phones and need them to make a living or show off their wealth,” said Shin Mi-nyeo, executive director of the Organization for One Korea, a South Korean support group for defectors that conducted the poll. “Then their phone bills create huge income for the government.” Kim Bong-sik, a researcher at South Korea’s Korea Information Society Development Institute, said estimating revenues was difficult, but it was likely to be one of the state’s biggest earners given the scale of the business. ## Hundreds of North Koreans arrested over the past year for using Chinese cellphones https://www.dailynk.com/english/hundreds-north-koreans-arrested-over-past-year-using-chinese-cellphones/ ##### North Korean leader Kim Jong Un criticized the Ministry of State Security for “serious human rights abuses” early this year amid the arrests, a source told [[Daily NK]] By [[Kim Chae Hwan]] on [[2021-12-14]] Daily NK’s investigation into the North Korean authorities’ crackdown on users of Chinese-made mobile phones from January to Dec. 8 of this year has determined that hundreds of people were arrested by the Yanggang Province branch of the Ministry of State Security. Most of those arrested were women in their 20s to 40s who were sent to labor camps or political prison camps after being detained and questioned at the provincial branch of the Ministry of State Security’s holding facility. Suspects are endlessly subjected to torture by investigators and guards during their questioning in detention, too, including being hung from the ceiling, given electric shocks, and exposed to hot and cold. Sexual assaults also frequently take place. ### The authorities have "electronic surveillance equipment" **According to a Daily NK source in North Korea on Monday, a woman in her 30s from Kimjongsuk Country was arrested at her home by the local branch of the Ministry of State Security in April after electronic surveillance equipment detected a phone conversation she had with an acquaintance in China.** #### She was then charged with [[Espionage]] After seven days of questioning, the woman – identified by her family name of Kim – was sent to a provincial Ministry of State Security holding facility on charges of espionage. On her first day at the facility, she was forced to kneel with a wood staff between her legs as she underwent questioning. The next day, she was hung by her ankles from the ceiling and her head repeatedly dunked in water until she confessed to spying. ### In May, a woman was arrested (and eventually died) because she received a remittance **In May, a woman in her 20s from Hyesan was busted by the city branch of the Ministry of State Security after she received money from a defector living in South Korea.** After seven days of questioning, the woman – identified by her family name of Pak – was charged as a spy when investigators found records in WeChat that she had leaked internal information such as food prices and market exchange rates. She was then sent to a provincial Ministry of State Security holding facility. **During her questioning, Pak had to suffer the indignity of being sexually assaulted by guards at night.** **Pak shouted and resisted the repeated sexual assaults, but she reportedly died in the end when she was beaten by the guards and suffered severe injuries, including a busted skull and broken ribs.** ### Secrecy of [[North Korean Ministry of State Security]] => Savage abuse People sent to the Yanggang Province holding facility are being sexually assaulted and indiscriminately beaten by investigators and guards, but nobody is being held responsible for this state of affairs. This is because those sent to the holding facility have already been charged as spies – traitors to the state – before being questioned. ==Moreover, the level of secrecy at the provincial Ministry of Security holding facility is almost as tight as a political prison camp. The source said because problems that occur at the facility are handled in utmost secrecy, operators engage in horrible wrongdoing.== The source even noted that North Korean leader [[Kim Jong Un]] criticized the Ministry of State Security for “serious human rights abuses” early this year. Despite this criticism from the top leadership, the ministry remains “so savage that people say you wake up in the morning and they’ve arrested the person who lives next to you, and the next morning they’ve arrested the person who lives behind you,” the source said. ==He said people now avoid saying anything sensitive even to family==, an indication that the Ministry of State Security’s surveillance and repression of the public is more intense than ever. ## Detection of Chinese cell phones within North Korea ### Page 34 of [['Connection Denied']] According to the UN Commission of Inquiry’s report, a special department, “Bureau 27”, also known as the Transmission Surveillance Bureau, of the SSD has sophisticated equipment to pick up the emissions of “Chinese mobile phones”.65 Eun-mi, a woman who was once arrested for using one of these phones, reported: > “Bureau 27 of the SSD has this monitoring device. They are put into backpacks, and agents hold this antenna-shaped device in their hands with red lights blinking. They said it was a detecting device. When the Bureau 27 agents came to arrest me, they took off their coats and there were these electric cords strapped around their bodies.”66 Jiro Ishimaru, a journalist from Asiapress in Japan and specialist in coverage of North Korea news, also wrote: > “The secret police from Bureau 27 in Pyongyang are specialists in covert intelligence and digital operations. If the case is to crackdown on ‘obscene materials’, it is a moral matter, and the police deal with these issues. But when the secret police appears, it is deemed to be a political issue.” 67 Bak-moon, who was an engineer before leaving North Korea, added: > “I heard that there are more advanced German-made monitoring devices that could recognize the contents of communications. They can figure out the position of the mobile phone signal precisely. They only have a small number of these devices in North Korea. They bring it to areas where they have a high density of mobile phone signals to monitor. I heard that some people were caught using cell phones by these devices.”68 Some individuals mentioned that it was possible to record full conversations using these devices, or even for the devices to reproduce the recorded conversations in text form, although none of them had actually heard a recorded conversation played back to them or seen a transcript. Yeon-hee explained how this would work: > “I heard that when security agents were walking, they gather the signals. If signals are detected, they follow the signal. Then they get in front of the house and record the conversation. Then they finally walk into the house, and then interrogate about the phone call. If the caller denies, they would play back a recorded conversation. Usually callers would hide their phone but because of the recorded conversation many people were caught – including my friends.”69 ## Detection avoidance in North Korea ### Page 36 of [['Connection Denied']] To avoid arrest, North Koreans have devised a number of tactics in order to prevent their mobile signals from being detected by security agents. These include keeping conversations with parties outside the country short, and making sure that they are not using the real names of persons during conversations. They also often go up mountains in order to avoid their signal being jammed or detected, as well as being physically seen by security agents. > “I was using someone else’s phone. Conversations must be very short and concise. We had to get to a specific spot to use the mobile phone. When going there, I was also concerned that people might see me during the trip.”72 When the “Chinese mobile phones” are not in use, they must be turned off not only to prevent the ringer from going off, but also to conserve electric power which is scarce in North Korea. Typically, the battery and the SIM card will be separated from the phone and kept in separate places. Sometimes, the SIM card may even be kept at a place outside the household.73 This way, the phone cannot be switched on by agents during random testing in the event of house searches. ## Consequences of getting caught In the event SSD agents catch a North Korean making an international call on a “Chinese mobile phone”, arrest is likely. So-kyung described what she believes is the usual procedure when an international call signal is detected by authorities: > “In a bad case, we would be sent to the political prison camp, where we would expect a long prison term. In a lighter case, we would be sent to a reform facility, and imprisonment would be for 1-2 years. Most people got out with a bribe though. They were caught in the first place because the government detected their signals using special machines. This happened even before 2005.”74 According to the Criminal Law in North Korea, mobile conversations with people outside the country as such are not illegal, but these conversations, particularly those with people living in South Korea, can easily be linked to vague offences that are listed under the criminal law, such as brokerage, illegal trade or even treason, and lead to arrest. Yeon-hee explained that: > “After the person is caught, the secret agency then checks all the phone call history to see whether the parties called were Chinese or South Korean ... If you are found calling South Koreans, you can be released only if you bribe right away, and say ‘I got this phone second hand, somebody else made this call.’”75 People whose conversations are overheard can face punishment even for content that would not be recognized as a criminal offence internationally. For example, Jong-hee told Amnesty about a case where a woman was punished only because she asked for money to be sent to her. > “My mother's friend was sent to danryondae \[reform through labour facility] because her conversation on the phone got heard. She got into trouble not because \[she] was criticizing the regime, but because she was asking for money. She was sent to danryondae for six months for ideological re-education and labour.”76 The Criminal Law (2012 amendment) of North Korea does not designate conversation with foreign nationals itself, whether face-to-face or through telephone, as a crime. But if the content of the conversation can be interpreted as evidence of treason (Article 63), private trading of foreign currency (Articles 106, 107, 108), illicit trade (Article 111), brokerage (Article 112), illegal business activities (Articles 114 and 115) or smuggling (Article 119), it can result in varying levels of punishment. The most severe punishment for treason is death, while the other offences are punishable by “reform through labour” for up to 10 years. The Telecommunications Law (2011, Article 38) includes provisions making citizens, or responsible staff of agencies, businesses, or other organizations liable for respective administrative punishment. These situations range from the illegal import or sales of telecommunications equipment from other countries, to the failure to provide the conditions that ensure the smooth operation of telecommunications. Although bribery has worked according to many of the individuals interviewed, it may not work in all cases. Two were caught on the spot by SSD agents for using “Chinese mobile phones”. One of them was questioned and then released, but Eun-mi was unable to bribe her way out, and was detained for weeks for communicating with someone outside the country. > The SSD agents are usually stationed in Chongjin. On the day [I was arrested], they were near the border area. On their way going back to Chongjin, they were waiting for the train. As my place was near the railway, SSD detected my mobile signal during their waiting time and I got arrested. The phone call was about eight minutes; the SSD people later told me it was foolish of me to use the phone for that long.” > “Communicating with someone in South Korea can be punished with imprisonment. But if you bribe the SSD people, they will fabricate documents and you can avoid imprisonment. When the SSD people came to my house, I put the mobile phone into the rice bag in the hallway in order to hide it, but they found it after some time. After I was caught, the SSD agents asked for RMB3000 [USD475] as a bribe. I said I would pay, but they saw my husband in the same picture with Kim Jong-il, and figured they were in a household of a high level official. So they did not take a bribe and just reported me.” Eun-mi was sent to the SSD detention facility in the county, and was detained for 20 days. > “There I saw people who were deprived of basic needs. The SSD agents confiscated the sanitary napkins of some cellmates, and gave them away to the agents’ own acquaintances. The meals provided were only corn soup, but even after they put it in front of you, you can only eat after getting permission. One cellmate ate before she got permission, and she was beaten up. Some people were avoiding drinking water because they swallowed money before they were arrested. And they were afraid the money would come out in their feces.” > “My husband pulled strings to get me out. The steel gates of the SSD facility was also used by construction workers [of my husband’s department]. With these relations, he was able to get me out.”77