{"id":60378,"date":"2024-07-22T14:16:49","date_gmt":"2024-07-22T05:16:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/?p=60378"},"modified":"2026-04-05T15:52:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T06:52:20","slug":"n-korea-imposes-strict-controls-on-cell-phone-use-among-overseas-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/n-korea-imposes-strict-controls-on-cell-phone-use-among-overseas-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"N. Korea imposes strict controls on cell phone use among overseas workers"},"content":{"rendered":"

North Korea is tightening cell phone controls on overseas workers as more laborers in Russia use unauthorized devices to access foreign information or plan defections.<\/p>\n

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a source in Russia told Daily NK last Wednesday that earlier this month, a state security agent, party secretary and personnel manager from a North Korean trading company in Primorsky Krai slipped into a dormitory at 1 AM and caught construction workers looking at their cell phones under the covers after lights out.<\/p>\n

The officials made the workers, still in their nightclothes, stand in formation outside the dormitory while they searched the dormitory’s communal and personal belongings.<\/p>\n

The workers were surprised by the nighttime dormitory inspection, as management had not recently conducted such random searches.<\/p>\n

In Russia, used cell phones are sold on the street for about USD 50 and can be used to make calls and access the Internet by inserting a SIM card. Given the ease of purchase, most North Koreans working in Russia appear to have cell phones that they keep hidden from their managers.<\/p>\n

Workers enjoy watching videos on YouTube when they can<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The North Korean authorities are hardly unaware of these practices. Last month, new workers were warned several times during orientation not to use cell phones while in Russia.<\/p>\n

“Construction work in Russia is very grueling, so most North Korean workers enjoy using an illegal cell phone to watch South Korean movies and dramas on YouTube under the covers at night,” the source said.<\/p>\n

The overseas workers caught watching the news or YouTube videos on their cell phones were transferred a week later to a concrete-laying job, where they would have to work harder for less pay.<\/p>\n

Because concrete pouring takes a long time and work is often interrupted by bad weather, construction workers in Russia tend to view it as a low-paying job. So the trading company’s order to transfer the workers to the concrete-laying site amounted to “revolutionary punishment” (hard labor and ideological re-education), the source said.<\/p>\n

In particular, the trading companies had previously blustered that any worker caught with a cell phone would be immediately repatriated to North Korea, but in reality the workers were simply transferred to another job site. This was presumably because company managers would face consequences for poor labor management if they actually sent the workers home.<\/p>\n

“Trading companies conduct these random inspections because they are under immense pressure from Pyongyang to prevent workers from accessing information from abroad,” the source said. “But company managers are very reluctant to actually inform Pyongyang that their workers have gotten into trouble, so they have had to settle for transferring the workers to another job site.”<\/p>\n

Daily NK works with a network of sources living in North Korea, China, and elsewhere. Their identities remain anonymous for security reasons.<\/em><\/p>\n

Please send any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read in Korean<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

North Korea is tightening cell phone controls on overseas workers as more laborers in Russia use unauthorized devices to access foreign information or plan defections. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a source in Russia told Daily NK last Wednesday that earlier this month, a state security agent, party secretary and personnel manager from a North […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":50936,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wikipediapreview_detectlinks":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,2091],"tags":[844,948,955,1138,1942],"class_list":["post-60378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-north-koreans-in-russia","tag-defections","tag-mobile-phones","tag-workers","tag-overseas-workers","tag-south-korean-culture"],"yoast_head":"\nN. 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