Cell Phone Use Continues to Rise in North Korea

Cell phone usage continues to rise in North Korea, highlighting the challenges and dangers of broadening mobile communications in a closed society.

An estimated 600,000 North Koreans are now registered users of Orascom, a domestic network run by an Egyptian carrier. Internet service is still quite limited -- available only to members of government and the elite -- but cell phones provide means of communication previously unavailable to the country's citizens.

For a population that is typically isolated, increased access to friends and family via text or cell is an improvement. Service is sometimes unreliable and international calls likely monitored, but connectivity provides the opportunity for increased awareness.

The government has an uneasy relationship with the new surge in technology, however. It still exerts tight control over the use of all electronic devices, requiring users to register phones, MP3 players, and flash drives. Foreign visitors are also not permitted to use their own devices while in North Korea. Cell phones that are not registered to the domestic network -- often smuggled in from China -- are seized and confiscated when found, and users can face punishments.

The government also sees opportunities to further its own agenda using technology. Last year, it used the mobile network to publicize Kim Jong Il's visit to China, circulating a text message that told users his visit was intended to improve relations between the two countries. Later, when footage of Il in China aired on state television, it seemed to enhance the government's credibility among citizens.

As increased connectivity poses both risks and benefits to the government, it does the same for its citizens. Access to information could serve to inform and educate portions of the population, but at the same time, that access could prove quite dangerous to those who possess it.

The government will likely attempt to utilize growing mobile technology to tighten its grip on its citizens, with its history of tightly restricting the flow of information. And many are still without access to the world outside of North Korea, which has a population of more than 20 million.

Still, given recent events in Egypt and Libya where citizens used technology to organize protest and resistance, the future of technology in North Korea should be an interesting one as mobile usage continues to grow.

Cell Phone Use Continues to Rise in North Korea originally appeared at Mobiledia on Tue Oct 04, 2011 11:24 am.

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