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Three things to read, from August 2025
This month’s NK TechLab reading list covers North Korea’s replacement of Chinese computers at government offices and intensifying crackdowns on information leakage.
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North Korea retargets radio jamming
North Korea retargeted its radio jamming operations after South Korea’s NIS stopped its broadcasts, now focusing on civilian-run stations like KBS and Voice of Freedom.
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North Korea Has Scored a Major Victory in the Battle Against Information
A dramatic reduction in foreign radio programming broadcast into North Korea has handed the regime an unexpected win in its decades-long war on outside information.
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North Korea’s Revised Radio Wave Control Law
A revised Radio Wave Control Law expands North Korea’s legal framework for censoring foreign broadcasts to cover computers and all electronic communications devices.
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Publishing new North Korean laws
A North Korean smartphone app containing a database of laws current to mid-2024 has allowed NK TechLab to publish 33 laws, some never previously seen outside North Korea.
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North Korea’s Health App Offers Medicines on Demand
A North Korean health ministry app lets citizens order medicines and consult doctors via smartphone — a sign of the state’s growing embrace of digital services.
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North Korea Revised its Space Law to Permit Military Use
A 2022 revision to North Korea’s Space Development Law removed language committing to peaceful uses of space, clearing the legal path for military satellites.
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Welcome to NK TechLab
NK TechLab investigates how North Korea uses technology — from smartphones and surveillance systems to AI and information controls — to govern and monitor its population.
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Madusan’s folding smartphone is identified
The folding smartphone that showed up at the recent National Exhibition of IT Successes has been identified. Commenting on a Reddit post, a user pointed to a video recorded at the IFA trade show that took place in Berlin in early September. The same phone was on display at the booth of Doogee, a Chinese…
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North Korea Gets A Folding Smartphone
A North Korean company is marketing a foldable smartphone—the first time such a phone has been seen promoted in-country. The handset was likely imported from a Chinese manufacturer and presents further evidence that North Korea’s smartphone market has been rapidly expanding since pandemic-era border restrictions were lifted. State media coverage of the annual “National Exhibition…