Millions of North Koreans now have smartphones – but they have to go to a physical store to install applications (AAPL)



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  Korean gymnast from North South Korea Reuters / Dylan Martinez

  • 40% of North Koreans now have smartphones, according to a new report.
  • But the vast majority of these phones do not connect to the global internet.
  • Users must go to a physical store to download applications.

North Korea may be an intensely secretive and impoverished nation, but it is not a technological wasteland.

Millions of North Koreans now have smartphones – up to 40% of the population, reported Monday Nknews.org.

That said, North Korean smartphones do not look like iPhones that you may be familiar with in the rest of the world, because the country is severely restricting trade. However, Android devices available only in North Korea seem strangely similar

The biggest difference in North Korea: you can not access the Internet worldwide. You must use the country's internal intranet.

 jindalae 3 DPRK Today

There are also applications, but most of them are North Korean. There are apps and commercial games, like a motorcycle racing title called "Mt. Paektu at Mt. Hanna".

One of the most popular applications, according to Nknews.org, is called "My Companion", which is described as a combination of Netflix and a reader. ; ebook.

But when North Koreans want to install additional applications, it's difficult because they do not have access to the Internet.

Instead, they must go to the actual application stores, where you can download applications approved by the North Korean government.

"The application store is a real physical store," said a source at Nknews.

In these centers, technicians install applications for the user. However, some users have learned to share games with each other by copying and pasting the files to a memory card.

There are many other juicy details about everyday life and technology at Hermit Kingdom in the report.

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