Imports of Smartphones Surges In North Korea

North Korea may be importing these smartphones, but they are connected to North Korea’s internal Internet which still allows the regime to control what information the public can access:

North Korea’s smartphone imports from China surged to a record high last year, a sign of a growing number of people there being connected to the net, according to data released Friday.

North Korea brought in US$82.8 million worth of smartphones from China in 2014, almost double the amount recorded a year earlier, according to the Seoul-based Korea International Trade Association.

It marked the largest volume since 2007, when related data were introduced.

Imports of portable data-processing devices, including laptops, also jumped 16 percent on-year to $23 million in 2014 despite a 3-percent decline in the North’s overall imports from China in the year.

Around 10 percent of the communist nation’s 24-million residents reportedly use smartphones, with its 3G network run by Koryolink, a joint venture with an Egyptian company, Orascom Telecom. [Yonhap]

People living on border areas with China have long been secretly using cell phones off of Chinese towers so maybe some of these smartphone buyers will be doing the same thing to access the Internet as well.