North Korea has allowed the growing use of mobile phones and domestic internet access in return for detailed information the network feeds the state’s surveillance operations, a US government-funded report says. "By giving citizens new networked technologies like mobile phones and tablets, the government is able to automatically censor unsanctioned content and observe everything citizens are doing on their devices remotely," Nat Kretchun, the report’s lead author, told Reuters. North Korea’s official mobile phone network, Koryolink, is used to send subscribers propaganda via text messages and its network calls and data are subject to surveillance. Koryolink was set up as a joint venture between OTMT and the North Korean State, but OTMT had said it effectively lost control of Koryolink in 2015.

North Korea also made headlines as a UN report found that it had been skirting sanctions by providing military aid to countries in Africa. The report cites a shipment of 30,000 RPGs allegedly bound for Egypt, smuggled under iron ore and seized back in August, according to the Associated Press.