See what it’s like to use a North Korean smartphone under Kim Jong Un
The Washington Post examined two North Korean smartphones to illustrate everyday life under Kim Jong Un’s regime. While citizens cannot access the global internet, the devices run a state‑controlled operating system with limited apps and heavy surveillance. The report highlights how the phones reflect the country’s isolation and propaganda efforts.
- ▪North Korean citizens are barred from the global internet and rely on a domestic intranet for online activities.
- ▪Smartphones sold in the country run a customized version of Android that includes only government‑approved applications.
- ▪The Washington Post obtained the devices with assistance from technology specialist Martyn Williams.
- ▪The phones feature built‑in monitoring tools that allow authorities to track user activity.
- ▪The devices serve as a tangible example of how the regime controls information and technology.
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Story provenance
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Record
| Original publisher | Washington Post — World |
| Canonical URL | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/07/26/see-what-its-like-use-north-korean-smartphone-under-kim-jong-un/ |
| Publication time | Sun, 26 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-07-26T09:02:53.082Z |
| Last seen | 2026-07-26T09:03:01.530Z |
| Headline source | Publisher (no WeSearch rewrite) |
| Excerpt source | publisher body |
| Excerpt method | First ~120 words (~800 chars) of extracted publisher body, fair-use limited. |
| Summary | WeSearch · cerebras-chat (WeSearch summarizer) |
| Summary source text | contentText |
| Citation coverage | Summary is a WeSearch-generated derivative; primary citation is the original publisher URL. |
| Cluster | eBIa40N_WNJs |
| Cluster logic | Grouped by semantic title/content similarity across sources within a rolling window. Same-publisher template collisions are excluded from coverage comparison. |
| Ranking reason | Story pages are not engagement-ranked. Hub feeds use recency, with optional source-diversified chronological ordering (cap consecutive stories per source). No personalized ranking. |
| Publisher visit | Yes — open original |
| Substitutes article? | No — link-out required for full text |
Rights status (four layers)
WeSearch handling by dimension
| Indexing | May the item be indexed (stored, ranked, made findable)? | Allowed |
| Snippet | May a short excerpt of the publisher's text be shown? | Allowed |
| AI summary | May WeSearch generate its own short summary of the article? | Limited |
| Retrieval / RAG | May the content be exposed for third-party retrieval-augmented generation? | Not asserted |
| Model training | May the content be used to train AI models? | Not asserted |
| Commercial reuse | May the content be reused commercially? | Not permitted |
Basis: Derived from the published RSS/Atom feed. Contact: [email protected]. Reviewed: 2026-07-24.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
7 minBy Michelle Ye Hee LeeSEOUL — People in North Korea can’t access the internet. But that hasn’t stopped a meaningful share of them from buying smartphones.The Washington Post, with the help of Martyn Williams, a North Korean technology specialist, has gained access to two of the country’s latest smartphones, which offer a remarkable window into daily life in one of the most reclusive countries. CommentsSign up
Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Washington Post — World.
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