jailbreak
How strictly Kim Jong-un monitors the smartphones of his population – and how they defend themselves
Smartphone use is extremely restricted in North Korea
© Wong Maye-E/ / Picture Alliance
Jailbreak, prison break, that’s what it’s called when you free your smartphone from artificial restrictions. For North Korean smartphone owners, this is much more literal. This turns little hackers into freedom fighters.–
In Europe and the USA, it’s more of a topic for nerds: Because Apple and Google limit some functions of their smartphone systems or prevent them altogether, resourceful hackers keep cracking the systems to switch off the barriers. In North Korea’s ultra-restrictive system, however, this amounts to a revolutionary act. And allows a glimpse into the otherwise well-hidden freedom in the rest of the world.
Because the smartphone has long since spread as an everyday object, even in the most isolated country in the world. This emerges from a recent report by the human rights organization Lumen. Unlike in Germany, however, the restrictions in the operating system are not limited to only being able to install approved apps or specifying the assignment of the hardware buttons, as is the case with the iPhone. Instead, head of state Kim Jong-un only allows devices that his regime retains precise control over what happens on them.
As closed as the country itself
While smartphones in western countries refuse to install an app or display a media file only in extremely rare cases, in the North Korean system it is the absolute norm: nothing that is not government-approved can appear on the screen.
According to the report, the regime relies on two systems for this purpose. On the one hand, like the computers in the country, smartphones only access the country’s internal network. The sheer endless expanses of the World Wide Web remain unreachable. On the other hand, the content on the device itself is also strictly monitored. A signature system ensures that only images, videos or apps that have been approved by the state are displayed. Everything else is not only not shown – but also automatically removed from the device after the attempt to open it. In addition, the device regularly saves non-erasable screenshots in order to provide government agencies with evidence of misuse of the device during an audit.
With the extreme measures, the regime wants to get a grip on a problem that has plagued the country for a long time: the unwanted influence of the outside world on the population. Activists used USB sticks to smuggle Western media into North Korea, which was then enthusiastically absorbed by the population. Although a series like “Friends” – supposedly hugely popular in North Korea – in this country are hardly perceived as political propaganda. In the extremely poor and extremely regulated everyday life of North Korea, the adventures of the free New Yorkers in their mid-twenties seem like a glimpse into another, extremely free and prosperous world – and are accordingly a thorn in the side of the regime.
Gaze at Freedom
However, access to these media is worth a high risk for some residents. The human rights activists managed to talk to two North Koreans who specifically hacked their smartphones and those of their friends in order to circumvent the restrictions. Using a so-called “root” they managed to disable both the content restriction and the screenshot function. The smartphone hackers, who acted independently of one another, reported that they were even able to install banned apps such as games. While both cracked the devices for free, both also reported of others offering their services for money.
The motivation is similar to that of other hackers around the world, Sokeel Park of the activist group Liberty in North Korea told Wired. He had also spoken to one of the hackers interviewed for the study. “There isn’t this one, super-rational intention behind his actions,” he believes. Like other hackers, he would just like to play around with technology and derive satisfaction from being able to defeat the limitations.
The authorities react
The human rights activists at Lumen believe that it is still more likely that a small group of people are manipulating their smartphones. The only argument for this is that the necessary technical knowledge is not widespread. Nevertheless, the movement seems to be big enough that the Kim regime has already reacted to it. In 2020, a new law explicitly prohibited manipulating the software of smartphones in order to deactivate the security functions.
“The existence of this very specific wording shows that it’s happening on a scale that is raising awareness among the authorities,” Lumen believes. “And that might worry you too.”
Sources: Lumen Report, Wired
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