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An image of the Phurun Hanul smartphone from North Korea

Amid growth in the North Korean smartphone market, the latest models are reportedly being upgraded with face and fingerprint scanners.

On Nov. 9, North Korean radio broadcaster Voice of Unification introduced listeners to a smartphone called the Phurun Hanul (“Blue Sky”).

The smartphone is manufactured by the Phurun Hanul Corporation, which was established in 2015 under North Korea’s Ministry for the Electronics Industry.

The device’s central processor, called the MCU, appears to make use of the MT6757, made by Taiwanese company MediaTek. Its operating system is Android 7.1.1 (Nougat), and it has a battery capacity of 4,060mAH.

While it’s unclear exactly when the smartphone was released, this particular operating system was released on South Korean devices two years ago.

“Demand is increasing every day for the Phurun Hanul, which offers several advantages. It has a high processing speed, security features such as 3D high-speed facial recognition and fingerprint authentication, and the capacity to support multiple SIM Cards,” the radio broadcaster said.

The Phurun Hanul is only one of several smartphones that are in distribution in North Korea, and the number of mobile phone users is apparently on the rise.

In September, North Korean publication Meari (“Echo”) described a smartphone called Gildongmu (“Road Buddy”) that offers fingerprint and facial recognition, while another publication called Sogwang (“Dawn”) ran a report back in April about a smartphone called Pyongyang 2425 with wireless charging.

In December 2018, Cho Bong-hyeon, deputy director of the Institute for the North Korean Economy at the Industrial Bank of Korea, estimated during a seminar that there were about 6 million mobile phone users in North Korea.

In August and September, the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies at Seoul National University surveyed 116 North Koreans who had defected last year. The survey found that 62.9% of the defectors had owned a mobile phone before leaving North Korea.

North Korean media reported that the facial recognition feature in North Korean smartphones had been developed at Kim Il-sung University. “A cutting-edge technological research center at Kim Il-sung University has developed a facial recognition device called Dambo [meaning “guarantee”]. This is a high-performance, AI-based device that combines a video camera, identification programs, and hardware. The device is equipped with features to prevent deceitful behavior using photographs, videos, and mobile phones. The device is easy to install regardless of the location,” Meari reported on Nov. 7.

By Kim Jin-cheol, staff reporter

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]