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Inside Pyongyang’s new gaming center
Some fascinating photos of the new cyber gaming center recently toured by Kim Jong Un have been posted to X. The photos show the center, located in the new Hwasong District of Pyongyang, is packed with gaming PCs and computer games from overseas. One image shows numerous gaming stations, each apparently equipped with PCs, monitors…
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Three things to read, from October 2025
Each month, NK TechLab highlights three interesting or important articles that provide a window into the use of technology in North Korea or by the state. This month, digital grain vouchers, a report on North Korea’s cyber operations, and a North Korean feature phone. Daily NK: North Korea launches app-based digital grain voucher system to…
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A Visual Look at Smartphone Penetration in North Korea
How many North Koreans are using smartphones? It’s one of the most common questions about technology in North Korea, but it’s also one that is very difficult to answer. It used to be straightforward. After Egypt’s Orascom launched Koryolink, North Korea’s first 3G network in December 2008, it would publish detailed quarterly statistics. The data,…
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The Importance of Foreign Information Access in North Korea
For decades, North Koreans have relied on illicit foreign information to provide news, information, entertainment, knowledge and — perhaps most importantly — ideas they would otherwise never have access to. But since the beginning of this year, the amount of radio and television programming being beamed into North Korea has plummeted. Radio broadcasting is down…
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A Nascent Fintech Industry Appears in Pyongyang
Electronic payments appear to be gaining popularity in North Korea, thanks to the spread of smartphones, pressure from the state, and an increasingly competitive market for smartphone apps. Several competing electronic payment wallets are in operation in Pyongyang and, to a lesser extent, across the country, according to an examination of recent North Korean smartphones,…
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Three things to read, from September 2025
Each month, NK TechLab will publish a review of three interesting or important articles from the month that provide a window into the use of technology in North Korea. This month, surveillance at a LAN café in Pyongyang, more radio broadcasts to North Korea are halted, and North Korean IT workers look beyond the tech…
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Three things to read, from August 2025
Each month, NK TechLab will publish a review of three interesting or important articles from the month that provide a window into the use of technology in North Korea. This month, crackdowns on information leakage and Chinese electronic products. Rimjingang: Key Institutions Replace Chinese PCs with Domestic Products – Widespread Virus Infections and Information Leak…
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North Korea retargets radio jamming
North Korea has retargeted its radio jamming program after the cessation in early July of propaganda broadcasts by South Korea’s National Intelligence Service. On July 30, jamming was observed against KBS Hanminjok Radio (KBS 한민족방송) and Voice of Freedom (자유의소리방송), which is run by the Ministry of National Defence. North Korea jams programs by deliberately broadcasting…
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North Korea Has Scored a Major Victory in the Battle Against Information
The propagandists and censors in North Korea have been battling foreign information for decades and just scored one of their biggest victories. They didn’t need to do anything. The US and South Korean governments did it for them.
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North Korea’s Revised Radio Wave Control Law
A key North Korean law that provides the technical basis for much of the country’s censorship of foreign broadcast and communications networks has been expanded in scope. The Radio Wave Control Law (전파관리법) previously covered radio equipment but a revised version published in 2023 includes electronic devices, including computers. The revisions add a lot more…
