North Korea now offers full-fledged video calling services as the country commercializes its 4G network. However, technical issues such as overheating, excessive battery consumption, and optimization problems have been experienced by some smartphones during video chats.
Daily NK recently obtained a copy of Daehwawon, a comprehensive video call app subscribers to North Korea’s 4G networks can use on their smartphones.
The app’s instructions describe the service as a “real-time chatting program that allows 4G subscribers to engage in video calls or exchange pictures.” This being the case, the app presumably allows users to not only make video calls but also trade photographs.
In particular, the app’s instructions say that mobile network subscribers “must first subscribe to a 4G data network through Kangsong NET” to use Daehwawon, and that “devices with two SIM cards should set their data connection and short messaging services to Kangsong NET and their access point to KS.H.”
This means Daehwawon is an app for 4G subscribers of Kangsong NET, one of North Korea’s leading mobile network providers. Subscribers of Koryolink appear to use another app.
Daehwawon’s instructions teach users how to subscribe to the app, telling them to “select the network they receive service from and enter the verification code sent within two minutes by the mobile network user verification program.”
The instructions also tell users how to send photos. “Enter the address or phone number to which you are sending the photo, press the ‘send photo’ button’ and press the ‘attach’ button, after which the ‘photo’ and ‘take photo’ buttons will appear,” it says. “You can send an existing photo by pressing the ‘photo’ button or take a photo to send by pressing the ‘take photo’ button.”
However, the instructions say that users cannot resend downloaded photos. Presumably, this means photos one receives cannot be sent to another person. Smartphone filtering programs seem to block users from resending pictures they receive from other users to prevent the distribution and spread of information.
However, the Daehwawon app appears to have technical issues, including overheating, battery usage and optimization problems.
The instructions say that while users must subscribe to a 4G network to use the video chat service, “subscribers who use devices with less than 2 gigabytes of RAM such as the Pyongyang 2431 photo should not use the video call service because the phone could overheat and shut off for no reason because video calls require heavy battery usage.”
The video calling app requires significant processing power, causing lower-end smartphones to overheat and drain their batteries quickly. This appears to be due to either the app’s high resource demands or inefficient programming, making it impractical to use on basic smartphone models.
Another page of the instructions says that users “must add Daewonwon to their system management, program management and automatic run lists, and system management and program protection lists.” For the Pyongyang 2428 and 2429 phones, “users must add the app to the system management, acceleration, preferences and protection lists.”
This suggests users must change their program settings because the Daehwawon app may not function properly if other apps push it down the resource priority list. The instruction could also be aimed at preventing the app from clashing with Red Flag, a filtering and monitoring app that runs on North Korean smartphones.
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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