A YouTuber has reassured his audience following concerns about his safety after he explored the workings of North Korean technology.
North Korea captivates many due to its enigmatic nature and the contrast in openness compared to other nations.
While it’s known that the government extensively uses propaganda, the specific methods involving technology and smartphones are less understood.
Popular YouTuber MrWhosetheboss, whose real name is Arun Maini, stirred up curiosity when he explored ‘North Korea’s illegal smartphones’.
Arun examined a Haeyang 701, a budget smartphone, and the Samtaesung 8, considered North Korea’s version of the Samsung Galaxy.
To illustrate the rivalry between North and South Korea, Arun highlighted that Samtaesung means ‘three huge stars’, mocking South Korea’s ‘three stars’ Samsung name.
He detailed how censorship is deeply embedded in the devices. For instance, when attempting to type ‘South Korea’, it is autocorrected to ‘puppet state’.
If someone tries to write ‘Republic of Korea’, it is automatically replaced with asterisks, preventing the user from sending the message.
On the Samtaesung phone, ‘North Korea’ is changed to ‘Joseon’, a historical name for Korea, while ‘South Korea’ becomes ‘South Joseon’.
Arun explained that this reflects ‘just how committed North Korea’s government is [in] sustaining its narrative that South Korea is the inferior, less individual country that just blindly follows whatever the US asks them to’.
He also noted that even South Korean slang is altered on these phones to more formal North Korean terms. For example, ‘Oppa’, a ‘common South Korean expression that can be used to either mean older brother or in slang terms boyfriend’, is changed to ‘comrade’, with a warning that ‘this word can only be used to describe your siblings’.
Neither device has the capability to access WiFi.
This led to a flurry of concern from his fans on social media, worried about his safety, which he addressed in a recent post.
Arun shared a photo of himself smiling and wrote: “Made it back to the UK safe!!
“Seriously appreciate all the concern, I got pretty spooked myself ngl. Back to tech videos soon.”
His followers expressed their relief in the comments after learning he was safe post his North Korea visit.
One user commented: “Absolute relief seeing this post seriously glad you’re safe and sound Arun. Thank you for the incredible yet high risk content you create. Take care and we’ll be ready for the next tech drop.”
Another joked: “Glad you’re safe buddy! We almost had to send out Seal Team 6 for an extraction.”
A third added: “YOU HAD US WORRIED AT LEAST COULD’VE TWEETED SOMETHING IN 3 DAYS??!!”
Another commented: “Thank God that your returned safe n sound! Take some rest and come back to your work soon!”