Last weekend North Korean media treated us with a remarkable picture: the Supreme Leader Marshal Kim Jong Un with a new domestically produced smartphone in his hands. Kim was shown playing with the newly made ‘Arirang’ smartphone, which was allegedly produced locally, at a factory the Marshal himself was visiting to inspect.

A few months earlier North Korean media had written about the ‘Samjiyon’ tablet PC – also said to be produced locally –which comes pre-loaded with a large amount of ideologically correct and useful content, such as the full works of the Supreme Leader’s father and grandfather Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung.