Economic Miracle: Weapons, Hackers, Forced Labor: The Dark Business Model Behind North Korea's Boom
Bitter poverty meets smartphone frenzy: North Korea has been growing again for more than three years after a long crisis - financed by Putin's war in Ukraine, cryptocurrency thefts and prison labor.
Seoul, Tokyo. Traffic jams in Pyongyang, North Koreans in a smartphone frenzy, rapid taxi calls via app: In the capital of the isolated autocracy, digital modernity seems not only to have arrived, but is actually thriving. Yet the North Korean population is extremely poor, and fields are still tilled with oxen in many places.
Six cashless payment systems and 24 smartphone brands were counted by Martyn Williams, an expert on North Korean technology at the US think tank Stimson Center, during a guided visit to Pyongyang last year. "All these brands are run by various trading companies that want to make money," he says - with technology from China. North Koreans often have to shell out up to $500 for this, either in foreign currency or by laying out a government-issued foreign exchange certificate. Williams even found a flip phone for $2,000.
The Wall Street Journal recently called North Korea the "most surprising economic success story in the world." Yet it remains a mystery: Where did the North Koreans suddenly get so much money, especially in foreign currency?
Translated by urgent.news. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
