North Korea promotes its first domestically produced smartphone.

On August 13, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) promoted a smartphone manufactured by North Koreans.

Smartphones bearing the brand name "Arirang," after a North Korean folk song, became known to the public during leader Kim Jong-un's visit to the production site on August 11.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspected the "Arirang" smartphone production line on August 11. (Source: AFP)

According to KCNA, during the visit, Kim Jong-un received a presentation on "the features, quality, and design of the Arirang mobile phone."

However, according to observers, the smartphone, based on Google's Android operating system, may actually have been manufactured in China, and the news was merely intended to stir up nationalist sentiment.

Image of a prototype of North Korea's "homemade" smartphone. (Source: KCNA)

The photos provided by KCNA only show workers checking the quality of the phones and packaging the products, but no production line is visible.

The website North Korea Tech suggests that these smartphones are most likely manufactured in China, then exported to North Korea's May 11 Factory, where they undergo further inspection before being sold.

Two years ago, the North Korean government took a similar action by promoting flat-screen TVs also produced by the May 11th Factory, following a visit by leader Kim. At the time, many commented that much of the TV screen production process was already carried out in China.

According to (Vietnam+) - VT