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Digital Planet: North Korean digital control

Factual: Science & Nature

Woman browsing on tablet in the dark

10/05/2022 GMT

North Korean digital control

BBC World Service - Digital Planet, North Korean digital control

Digital control in North Korea. Also, clean drinking water at the push of a button and how the military uses augmented and virtual reality.

North Korea is known as one of the most isolated countries in the world. Yet, there are North Koreans who have access to some of the same kind of technologies that are available to the rest of the world, albeit with severe restrictions. A new report suggests that some even hack their smartphones to get around the stringent digital controls. The authors of the report looked at North Korean phones and spoke to two escapees, a former computer programmer for the North Korean government and a former computer science student. One of the authors Martyn Williams as well as North Korea expert and co-host of the BBC podcast The Lazarus Heist Jean H. Lee join us on the programme.

Clean Drinking water at the push of a button
Researchers at MIT have created a portable device that can clean and desalinate seawater. It works by creating an electrical field that pulls salt and suspended solids out of the water. Unlike other methods, this requires little electricity and no filters. Research scientist Junghyo Yoon is hoping to improve and commercialise the technology in the next couple of years.

Military virtual and augmented reality
Microsoft has recently been contracted to construct more than 120,000 augmented reality headsets for the U.S. Army. How is virtual and augmented reality used in the military? Will it be used on the battlefield? Gareth speaks to journalist and VR training expert Andy Fawkes.

The programme is presented by Gareth Mitchell with expert commentary from Ghislaine Boddington.

Studio Manager: Steve Greenwood
Producer: Florian Bohr

(Image: Woman browsing on tablet in the dark
Credit: Christina Reichl Photography/Getty Images)

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