Kim Jong Eun recently made an onsite guidance visit to the “May 11 Factory”, which manufactures high-tech goods including cellphones. The news was revealed in a Rodong Sinmun report published on August 11th.
According to the report, Kim “learned in detail about the performance, quality and packing” of “Arirang” cell phones, which are produced at the facility. He also praised the facility for “developing an application program in Korean style” and for the pixel density of the inbuilt camera. He also supposedly “noted that the mass-production of goods with the DPRK trademark can instill national pride and self-respect into the Korean people.”
Interestingly, this is the first time that Kim has offered the Kim family stamp of approval to the widespread production, and by extension ownership, of cell phones, despite the fact that the number of subscribers to North Korea’s “Koryolink” cellular network has been growing rapidly for a significant period of time.
Equally significantly, Kim posited the idea of cellphone production as a patriotic activity, expressing appreciation at the “creative ingenuity and patriotic enthusiasm with which the officials and employees of the factory laid a solid foundation for mass-producing hand phones by building a new modern hand phone production process.”
