This text is from the fourth version (April–June 2026) of 38 North’s quarterly product, North Korea Briefing, that displays key inner developments in North Korea. For the total collection, click on right here.
The rising digitization of North Korean life, epitomized by the unfold of smartphones, is altering extra than simply how residents keep in contact. Within the second quarter of 2026, a international customer supplied new proof of the widespread recognition of digital wallets in Pyongyang; Kim Il Sung College’s regulation journal mentioned digital proof; and a tv program supplied ideas for individuals who spend an excessive amount of time on their telephones. Collectively, these developments are additional proof that smartphones should not simply a useful gizmo for a lot of North Koreans however have gotten built-in into their every day lives. If adoption of digital expertise stays on its present trajectory, it might have a broader impression on North Korean society.
E-Funds
Final yr, this writer documented six completely different e-payment techniques apparently in operation. A go to to Pyongyang by a international tour group in Might 2026 revealed two extra: the Huinnun (흰눈) and Saebyol (새별) digital wallets.
The tour group chief wrote that 4 apps are notably frequent—Samhung (삼흥), Manmulsang (만물상), Huinnun and Jonsong (전성) — whereas Saebyol and Apnal (앞날) are much less broadly used.
These feedback align with video shared by different vacationers exhibiting QR codes for e-payment on show at many Pyongyang retailers. Even road meals stands and vegetable sellers settle for digital funds, suggesting the shift to digital wallets is actual and is underway, a minimum of within the capital.
The customer, Stephen Zhang, wrote:
For transport, customers can use E-Wallets to pay for buses and metro tickets, guide taxis in a way just like Uber, and pay motorway toll charges. In every day life, customers can prime up cell phone credit score, order meals supply, change grain coupons, store on-line, and reserve cinema or theatre tickets. E-Wallets additionally assist sports activities lottery companies, software program downloads, and varied intranet-based companies.
One of the fascinating elements of those digital wallets is their assist for international foreign money. The Samhung and Narae apps present balances in native received (내화원) and international change received (외화원). The latter is a digital foreign money used to characterize foreign currency echange; its use seems to be spreading by way of the e-wallets. The federal government-set fee is roughly 110 foreign exchange received to the US greenback and is impartial of the market fee.
Customers deposit international foreign money money into their wallets by way of ATMs or at IT Service Facilities the place it’s transformed to foreign exchange received within the app. That stability is then out there to be used in each bodily and on-line shops. Your complete system is sanctioned by the state, which sells sure items, resembling medicines, on to customers in foreign exchange received. Foreign exchange received and home received should not interchangeable, and items priced within the former can’t be bought with the latter.
Context and Implications
The rise of digital fee networks in North Korea ranks among the many most putting digital developments of current years. Digital funds started round 2011, when the Overseas Commerce Financial institution issued the Narae (나래) debit card. The Central Financial institution adopted in 2015 with the Jonsong (전성) card, however accounts counsel each have been comparatively unpopular, attributed to public mistrust of banks following the disastrous foreign money revaluation of 2009.
The important thing initiative that kick began change was the Digital Cost Regulation (전자결제법) of 2021. It created a framework, overseen by the Central Financial institution, that allowed non-banking entities to create e-payment companies. Because of this, a number of of North Korea’s largest app builders launched their very own e-payment companies and commenced bundling extra companies into the apps.
The adoption of digital funds brings added comfort for customers and tangible advantages for the state. Maybe extra importantly, it may well facilitate tax assortment from retailers as all digital gross sales are recorded. It additionally permits the state to watch pricing of products.
For residents, nonetheless, it may well open the door to even larger surveillance. A digital buy ties an individual to a selected place and time, including an additional layer to their already closely surveilled lives.
“Digital Proof”
The most recent version of the Journal of Kim Il Sung College (Jurisprudence) launched the essential idea of “digital proof [전자증거].”[1] The article mentioned the difficulty at a theoretical stage, protecting its definition and historical past, issues for its assortment and use in courtroom, and its remedy in different jurisdictions, citing China’s strategy specifically.
The article concluded:
As info expertise develops quickly, the info codecs included in digital proof are additionally always altering.
We must always have a broad understanding of digital proof and additional deepen our analysis into it, thereby actively contributing to the passable decision of the theoretical and sensible issues that come up in relation to digital proof.[2]
Context and Implications
This isn’t the primary time North Korean tutorial journals have explored digital proof or digital forensics. As early as 2018, for instance, a regulation journal article on felony science and expertise examined the topic.[3] What distinguishes the most recent article is that it’s the first devoted completely to the subject, suggesting it’s gaining traction throughout the North Korean judiciary and that discussions could also be underway relating to using digital proof in felony proceedings. North Korean regulation, so far as we all know, presently comprises no particular provisions for digital proof.
This text can also be the most recent in a collection in North Korean tutorial journals analyzing what have to be new frontiers for the nation’s authorized system as society adopts extra digital practices. Final yr, for instance, the identical journal checked out authorized points arising from digital contracts, digital authentication techniques, and e-government. [4] [5] [6]
Life-style Selections
On Might 1, weary-eyed viewers of Korean Central Tv (KCTV)’s common “Well being and Life-style (건강과 생활섭생)” characteristic have been handled to recommendation on a really trendy well being downside: eye pressure from overuse of smartphones or computer systems.[7] This system, which had aired 4 instances as of June 22, provided recommendation for folks experiencing dry or strained eyes from extended display screen use.
It highlighted enhancements in smartphone show expertise to be simpler on the eyes and beneficial that customers comply with the 20-20-20 rule: each 20 minutes, take a look at one thing a minimum of 20 ft away for 20 seconds. This system adjusted that to six meters whereas retaining the US measurement in parentheses in order that the rule made sense.[8]
This system carried an interview with a health care provider from Pyongyang’s Ryugyong Ophthalmology Common Hospital, who stated: “Eye fatigue … is showing amongst individuals who work for lengthy hours taking a look at pc and cell phone screens.”
Context and Implications
This system offered no knowledge on imaginative and prescient issues in North Korea, however its inclusion in a collection specializing in societal well being points suggests the nation is starting to expertise an identical rise in imaginative and prescient complaints linked to smartphone and pc overuse. For the tens of millions of North Koreans who personal a smartphone, it’s most likely their first sustained expertise with a contemporary IT system, that means many are watching shiny, small screens for hours for the primary time.
Till not too long ago, few North Koreans had entry to computer systems, and smartphones have been used primarily for calls and messaging. Nonetheless, lately, the state has pushed office digitization, and smartphones have gained extra leisure and procuring apps, possible resulting in considerably longer every day display screen time. [9]
