Just how isolated is North Korea? 6 facts to consider

5. North Korea has strict communications rules

David Guttenfelder/AP
A television is covered with a decorative lace in a North Korean home near the town of Sariwon, Oct. 25. Televisions and radios in North Korea can only tune into four state-owned stations.

In North Korea, power is scarce, no broadband data network exists, and most of the country remains analog, according to the CIA factbook.

For certain elites, there is some access to computers and an intranet system, but the Internet and international cellphones are banned. Most of the country’s 431,900 cellphones can only make domestic calls.

In August 2010, BBC News reported that an agency contracted by the North Korean government opened YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter accounts. But there are no independent media. Radios and televisions are pre-tuned to the four government stations. The government prohibits listening to and jams foreign broadcasts.

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