Purchasing apps from a North Korean app store
There are also smartphones and app stores in North Korea, but that all works slightly differently than in the rest of the world…
North Korea is one of the most closed countries in the world. Such is the North Korean internet, completely cut off from the internet in the rest of the world. And the government is watching via the spy app Kwangmyong. Are you watching a pirated South Korean series on your phone? Then you are glowing with it, with usually nasty punishments.
Only at elite universities, such as the University of Pyongyang, or if you are very high in the party hierarchy, can you visit the rest of the world on the Internet. And, of course, the dreaded North Korean hackers have plenty of internet access.
Have an app installed in an app store
Using the North Korean internet is free, at least if you have a computer. You can only visit a limited number of censored North Korean sites here. So different from here.
Buying apps for your beautiful North Korean phone (which isn’t even that bad) is also a lot different than we are used to in the rest of the world. Here you just download the app you want from an App Store, such as those from Google or Apple. In North Korea you really have to leave the house, because a North Korean app store is a real store, where you will find the offer in the form of posters on the wall. These shops are often also part of a larger shop.
So if you want to buy an app, you are just a few minutes away. The shop assistant then installs the app on your phone using a data cable. Alek Sigley, who lives as a post-graduate student in North Korea, was almost an hour away when he bought 10 apps.
Many different apps for sale
The app stores are also very popular, so there are quite a few in the capital Pyongyang. North Korean apps are not cheap: you pay 5,000 to 10,000 won (according to the official exchange rate €5-€10 per app). That is made up for by the enormous variety of apps. There are many games, for example, where you have to shoot American or Japanese invaders, lifestyle apps, literary apps and so on. There is also a North Korean version of Netflix, where you can watch North Korean series.
More information about life in North Korea and the possibilities to book a tour can be found on Alek Sigley’s Tongil Tours site.
