About one out of five North Koreans are users of the country’s Wi-Fi network, Daily NK has learned.
“According to the Ministry of State Security’s general statistics for the first half of 2023, less than 20% of the population nationwide are subscribers to Mirae,” an unnamed source in Pyongyang told Daily NK last Thursday, referring to the nation’s Wi-Fi network. “Subscribers are mostly in the big cities.”
Based on North Korea’s total population of 25 million people, this means there are at most five million Mirae subscribers.
North Korea announced in 2018 that people could use a smartphone app to access the national network through the “Mirae public wireless data communications network.” The number of subscribers seems to have skyrocketed after the launch of the service.
Big city residents are currently the main users of the service, but the numbers of subscribers could grow if service expands to smaller provincial cities.
Wi-Fi users include not just mobile phone users, but users of other devices as well
However, the number of Mirae subscribers as calculated by the authorities appears to include not only mobile app users, but also people who use portable Wi-Fi devices or fixed Wi-Fi models at home. Given how there is likely some overlap here, Mirae subscribers may be fewer than estimated.
According to the source, North Korea provides not only portable Wi-Fi devices for mobile use, but also fixed Wi-Fi modems for use at home. The government provides people with modems that convert wired and wireless signals into Wi-Fi so that they can use Mirae with several devices, including notebook computers.
“You can use your individual password to access Mirae with not only smartphones, but also notebook computers,” the source said. “You can use Mirae in provincial capitals or nearby post offices, or near state agencies that use Mirae. Besides that, you can use Mirae in districts with mobile communication relay towers as long as you have an authorized modem device.”
The “authorized modem device” mentioned by the source appears to refer to a portable Wi-Fi device permitted for use by the North Korean authorities.
A portable Wi-Fi device is a kind of relay device that converts wireless telecommunications signals into Wi-Fi signals so that nearby devices can connect to the Internet. They appear to be in relatively wide use in North Korea, where Wi-Fi access points are limited.
Nevertheless, the country’s government is vigilant about how its people use and spread information, strictly restricting use of the relay devices.
North Korea operates three networks — the wired state computer network, a 3G wireless network and the Mirae Wi-Fi network. The authorities are particularly focused on improving the authentification process for users of these networks as part of efforts to confirm the identities of users and the information they access through the networks.
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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