North Korea has announced that those using mobile phones during the one hundred day mourning period for Kim Jong Il will be punished as war criminals. Anyone caught using one during this time now has a variety of gulag options. The country’s 3G network was established in 2008 by the Egyptian telecommunications company Orascom. Most current estimates put the total number of users at the better part of a million, so surveillance has become an escalating challenge for the regime. Controlling the proliferation of cheap Chinese cell phones in North Korean black markets seems more or less impossible now. Their greatest fear comes from those in the border regions who can relay their signals from Chinese stations to expand coverage beyond the country’s borders, allowing them to talk to people in South Korea. Many assume now that North Korea cannot go back and they’re almost definitely correct. Public rage following the disastrous 2009 currency revaluation has already shown that there’s some kind of line which cannot be crossed. The underground, market economy of North Korea is a lifeline for everyone and is run by private entrepreneurs who rely on cell phones in a place where they can’t rely on electricity or transportation. As to the reason for the ban, one can presume it’s a preemptive measure to quell potential unrest, though somehow I don’t imagine it was portrayed that way.

Digital technology has been the greatest obstacle toward enforcing the isolation of North Korean society. Authorities used to shut down the electricity in a neighborhood, then enter each house with a VCR to see what tape was caught inside. They’ve struggled to maintain this tenacity, but rooting out anti-socialist elements isn’t what it used to be.