As a part of our sequence analyzing the socioeconomic disparity between Pyongyang and different cities in North Korea, we’re trying on the variations North Koreans may expertise, relying on the place they dwell, throughout a wide range of indicators together with: entry to electrical energy, telecommunications, business, transportation infrastructure, and training. To take action, we utilized two examples as proxies: Haeju, a consultant mid-sized provincial capital, and Kim Hyong Jik, a distant, rural county seat.
The primary article checked out North Korea’s new five-year financial plan unveiled by Kim Jong Un on the Ninth Get together Congress in February 2026. And in a second, we explored the nation’s rural housing and rural industrial growth initiatives of the previous couple of years.
When Kim Jong Un kicked off the 20×10 regional growth coverage in 2024, he framed the initiative as citing the usual of residing in “backward” rural areas. Utilizing industrial satellite tv for pc imagery, state media evaluation, accounts of escapees and different knowledge, these articles try to characterize how rural areas is likely to be “backward” compared with different much less distant areas.
This installment discusses North Korea’s telecommunications community, together with entry to the Web (and intranet), cell phone service, and broadcasting throughout the nation.
Telecommunications
North Korea’s telecommunications networks are much less developed than many nations, though some comparatively fashionable providers have begun to emerge lately. Because of the nation’s tight controls on its inhabitants and the unfold of unapproved data, most telecommunications providers are restricted to home use solely.
Meaning telephones can not name abroad or obtain calls from different nations and knowledge community entry is restricted to an inside community with no Web entry.
The nation has a nationwide fiber optic spine that was put in within the early Nineteen Nineties with the United Nations Improvement Programme (UNDP) and expanded to cities throughout the nation.[1]
Immediately, the community seems to hook up with most authorities workplaces, official organizations and academic establishments in cities and cities throughout the nation. The state of rural connectivity to the community is much less clear.
The Worldwide Telecommunications Union estimates 1.18 million properties have a fixed-line phone—a quantity that has not fluctuated because the mid 2000s.
Mobile Service
Previous to the launch of 3G cellular service in late 2008, few North Korean properties had entry to a phone. The Worldwide Telecommunications Union (ITU) estimates one million properties had a hard and fast line telephone within the early 2000s, leaping to 1.18 million in 2006 and remaining there ever since.
When cell phone service arrived, it surpassed the variety of mounted line telephones inside a few years and has since grown to round 6-7 million strains. Precise figures will not be obtainable, however guests to Pyongyang point out that the majority North Koreans they meet within the capital have cellphones.
Community protection was initially centered on Pyongyang and steadily expanded to different main cities and main highways, earlier than reachingto the remainder of the nation. Immediately, industrial satellite tv for pc imagery reveals that the nation’s mobile community covers a big portion of the nation with many smaller cities and villages in vary of a sign. The ITU estimates that 94 % of the North Korean inhabitants have entry to mobile protection.
The cellular community permits for phone calls, video calls, textual content messaging and entry to the nationwide intranet. A rising variety of providers are being provided through apps that work in a minimum of the capital area.
These embrace digital fee programs, that are spreading throughout the nation. A examine on the evolution of the Samhung E-Pockets community reveals it was centered round Pyongyang within the early years, beginning round 2022, and commenced increasing to areas exterior the town round 2024.
Smartphone-based procuring apps additionally started with supply networks that solely lined the capital, however have not too long ago expanded to different main cities.
Broadcasting
North Korea’s strict censorship and data management atmosphere means solely a handful of broadcast networks can be found. These embrace two state radio stations and a number of other TV stations. Till 2016, many of the nation had entry to a single channel, Korean Central Tv, whereas viewers in Pyongyang had two extra channels, Mansudae TV and Ryongnamsan TV.
In 2016, the nation started to roll out a digital broadcasting community throughout the nation that delivered KCTV, the 2 Pyongyang channels, and an extra sports activities channel to all properties. The community seems to cowl many of the nation.
Wired Broadcasting
North Korea maintains a nationwide wired broadcasting community that carries a single audio program into homes throughout the nation. The service, referred to as the “Third Radio Community,” carries each nationwide and native programming and it used to relay data to residents that’s deemed too delicate to broadcast over the air, the place it is likely to be obtained abroad.
Precise penetration is unknown, however it’s imagined to be in each home. When the inside of recent rural housing has been proven in state media reporting, receivers for the radio community are sometimes seen.
Web and Intranet
Entry to the Web is strictly managed in North Korea; most residents have by no means used it. Web connectivity is accessible at some universities and organizations in Pyongyang below closely monitored situations.
Conversely, the nationwide intranet is rather more broadly obtainable. It seems that home web sites may be accessed via the cellular knowledge community through smartphones and the nationwide knowledge community through PCs. As a part of the regional growth “20×10” undertaking, new libraries are being constructed that seem to have on-line entry to books and examine supplies. Examine facilities at firms and colleges even have intranet entry though usually the organizations should finance their very own connection and tools.
The intranet can also be used to help the nationwide distance studying community, which gives on-line programs to residents throughout the nation. The programming originates from main universities and organizations throughout Pyongyang and provincial capitals. and is a means for data to be unfold throughout the nation with out residents touring to completely different areas.
Regional Entry
In comparison with different sectors, entry to telecommunications is extra evenly unfold all through the nation. That is, partially, as a result of every mobile, radio, or TV tower can cowl a big space. Nonetheless, the vast protection serves a number of functions. Not solely does it present connection, leisure, and academic choices for the inhabitants in even essentially the most distant areas, but it surely additionally performs a significant function within the state’s management and indoctrination packages.
North Korea requires residents to use for cell phone connections and to make use of a nationwide knowledge community ID to signal on to most providers.
Smartphones are starting to supply entry to digital authorities providers, with medication supply as an early utility. The service works throughout the nation, in keeping with the app, though it’s depending on availability of medicines in native areas. If providers proceed to be rolled out on the cellular platform, it might begin to rebalance entry to providers, data and leisure between metropolis areas and the countryside.
