Despite the international ban on directly providing, selling, or transferring electronics with military applications to North Korea, foreign-made mobile phones, laptop computers, and smartwatches are still being openly sold within the country.
Advertisements on a North Korean electronic payment app (Samhung Electronic Wallet 1.6) that was recently accessed by Daily NK contain sales information and specifications about a variety of foreign-made electronic goods and parts including mobile phones, smartwatches, fitness trackers and graphics cards.
The U.N. Security Council banned the export of industrial machinery to North Korea with Resolution 2397, but North Korea has continued to import electronic goods and parts from overseas.
In February 2023, Sobaek Mountain Information Technology Exchange Center advertised computers equipped with NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 3060 12 gigabytes graphics card.
In July 2023, Civilization Trading Company announced it was selling computers equipped with Intel’s Celeron N5095 quadcore processor (2.0-2.9 gigahertz), 12 gigabytes of low-power double data rate RAM, and a 256 gigabyte solid-state drive.
In October 2023, Pyongchon Pongnam Electronic Goods Store promoted sales of laptop computers at affordable prices. Various models were listed as being available, including several older versions of the Lenovo Thinkpad X250 (i7, 5th generation; i5, 6th generation; and i5, 7th generation), as well as the Dell i5, 12th generation.
Those were not the only companies advertising electronics. The Mangyongdae Jusung Store had products by Asus, HP and Toshiba; Paeksa Central District Store carried notebooks equipped with NVIDIA’s RTX 3050 and 3060 graphics cards; and Victory Technology Exchange Company sold Intel Core i5 12th generation CPUs, 16 gigabytes of RAM, and 512 gigabyte solid-state drives.
The advertisements on the app suggest that electronic goods and parts from various countries, including the U.S., China and Japan, are being sold inside North Korea. But it is unclear how exactly these goods and parts are entering North Korea.
Daily NK also confirmed that foreign-made smartwatches are being sold in North Korea. Pyongchon Dawn Store advertised that it was selling Huawei’s TalkBand B5, B6 and B7 and its X5 and X7 smartwatches. Huawei smartwatches were also being sold at Red Street Kumhung Store, which offered free delivery with an order.
Special deals for buyers of tech packages
North Korean companies were also offering package deals for customers who buy a smartphone, laptop computer and smartwatch together.
Myohyang Information Technology Product Development Company offered special deals for new arrivals at college and other students advancing to the next level of education on the Day of the Sun (the birth anniversary of Kim Il Sung on April 15, North Korea’s biggest holiday) in April 2023.
A package including a Myohyang 9017 mobile phone, a Lenovo laptop (Core i5 7th generation, 8 gigabytes of RAM, 512 gigabyte solid-state drive), Bluetooth-enabled clock K20, and a set of three premium shampoo and body wash products was being sold at the discounted price of 107,800 foreign currency-convertible won (around $980), down from 141,240 won (around $1,284).
The most expensive electronics package consisted of a Myohyang 9017 mobile phone, a Dell GS laptop (Core i7 9th generation, 32 gigabytes of RAM, NVIDIA GTX 1660 Ti 4 gigabytes, and a 2 terabyte solid-state drive) and Bluetooth-enabled clock K20, discounted from 245,300 won (about $2,230) to 207,350 won (about $1,885).
In addition, Puksae Electronics Store was selling the Chongsong 234 smartphone for 64,900 won (about $590) and Bluetooth-enabled watch B5 for 19,800 won (about $180). The smartphone and watch could be purchased together for the discounted price of 79,200 won (about $720).
The Chongsong 234 is one of North Korea’s newest smartphone models. It is equipped with the MT6789 processor by Taiwanese chipmaker MediaTek, a 7.78-inch AMOLED screen and a 4,100 milliampere-hour battery and is capable of accessing 4G data networks.
Daily NK works with a network of sources in North Korea, China, and elsewhere. For security reasons, their identities remain anonymous.
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