What It Is Like to Use Internet In North Korea

In North Korea, you can’t even own a fax machine (privately), and Internet access in North Korea is only available with special authorization by the government. Ever wonder how it would look like to go online in North Korea?

Well Will Scott, a former employee of Google had a chance to visit the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology and was able to purchase a copy of North Korea’s “Red Star 3” operating system.

Past versions of Red Star apparently looked a lot like Windows XP, but since Kim Jong Un was spotted using an iMac at his desk back around 2013, some believe he was the push for Red Star to look more like a Mac.

Here’s how it looks like:

Here is the startup screen when you boot up Red Star 3.

When you install Red Star 3, you get prompted to select a city for a time zone, Seoul, South Korea is not an option.

This is the login screen.

Here is the desktop, it resembles a Mac.

This is the email client.

This is the word processing program.

The file manager looks a lot like Apple’s “Finder”.

The browser for Red Star’s system is called “Naenara”, it is based on Mozilla Firefox but is heavily modified.