“I am back inside now teacher,” wrote one BTJ missionary when he entered into North Korea using a local mobile phone he just purchased.
Marcus (not his real name) is a missionary to North Korea and is witnessing a growing mobile phone boom in North Korea. Though it is still tightly controlled, it is showing signs of opening up.
Marcus bought a SIM card inside North Korea for about $250 USD for his mobile phone and was given a meager 50MB of 3G data. He can top up with additional data for $200 per Gigabyte. It is not cheap, but only a few months ago, using a mobile phone in the area where he is currently working was not possible.
Marcus is reporting that he is seeing a growing trend inside North Korea. Cell phone usage and smartphone penetration are growing rapidly.
“This is the primary way I share with churches inside,” Esther Chang says. Esther is a former missionary to North Korea whose biography can be found in SMUGGLING LIGHT. Esther has been preaching in home groups and underground house churches in North Korea through mobile phones.
“We have a special method,” Esther says, answering questions about whether it is safe or not for the locals on the ground.
Some estimates indicate that active mobile phone subscribers is currently between 6.5 to 7 million active subscriber lines and over 50 domestic phone brands on the market. Most of those are in the capital city of Pyongyang.
Though mobile phones are mostly a status symbol for the ultra powerful and rich, they are also being made available to BTJ missionaries.
The country has transitioned beyond its initial 3G networks to include 4G services to meet high consumer demand. Most of the mobile brands come from China, but now North Korea is broadening its horizons and looking to India.
One of the largest providers of mobile phones in North Korean is Phurunhanal Electronics. This year they appear to be sourcing their latest smartphones from the Indian company Lava International. This represents the first time a phone on sale inside North Korea has been linked to a non-Chinese manufacturer.
The use of mobile phones is still highly controlled inside North Korea, running on localized, government developed operating systems. They monitor users, track activity, and block unauthorized content, but there are cracks in the system that BTJ missionaries are able to use to send messages to supporters outside.
