North Korea recalls mobile phones

It seems mobile phones are allowing foreign cultural influences to seep into North Korea, so the government is recalling them.

North Korea’s mobile service began in November 2002, with products from Motorola Corp. of the United States and Nokia Corp. of Finland on the market in Pyongyang, Yonhap news agency said.

North Koreans were seen using mobile phones last month when the two Koreas held minister-level rapprochment talks, it said.

Experts believe North Korea had introduced the mobile technology to make communications convenient but later realised the device caused floods of foreign culture into the reclusive country, Yonhap said.

So now their use is forbidden, and they’ve been recalled. Sometimes I think Kim and his coterie might be a wee bit paranoid. Just a bit.

The Discussion: 3 Comments

Two things, one, I found it hard enough to get mobile telephone reception in some modern cities. What kind of reception would you get in a country were people would strip the wires off of a mast and sell them to by food, and two, mobile telephones, particularly satellite telephones are far harder to tap than rickety North Korean telephone exchanges are. I think that they suddenly woke up and saw that businessmen (people who can afford a telephone) where probably using them for covert conversations that the intelligence services hadn’t yet invested in the equipment to bug.

Paranoia yes, fear of cultural interference no.

June 5, 2004 @ 4:54 am | Comment

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