With the country's aim of controlling almost everything within its sovereignty, including what the citizens are watching. North Korea will now launch a clone of the American Company Netflix, letting its citizens watch on demand videos and replay documentary films about leadership under a controlled intranet as introduced by the state broadcaster KCTV.
Being termed as the " Hermit Kingdom" , North Korea is one of the very few countries which isolated themselves from the rest of the world, keeping narrow if not close doors for foreign influence.
According to ZDNet, electricity supplies in this country is still limited to major areas, such as Pyongyang, its capital. The concept of songbun, class-based social hierarchy, is still observed in the country giving internet access only to those on the top of the social class and those who belong to the Worker's Party of Korea (WPK).
NKNews said that the Manbang box, the country's Netflix clone, will also give access to Korean Central News Agency, a rumoured propaganda-churning channel that caters Juche ideology, and as well as the state manipulated newspaper Rodong Sinmun.
The head of the center which will provide information and technology to the Manbang would be Kim Jong Min, According to him " if a viewer wants to watch, for instance, an animal movie and sends a request to the equipment, it will show the relevant video to the viewer [...] this is two-way communications."
A footage from Korean Central Television ( KCTV) says that "Children tended to pester to show new interesting videos again after their release, but we had difficulty in dealing with it," Kim Geun Hee, a teacher at Sariwon orphanage said in the report. "However, we are happy since we are now able to show films to them again, and children enjoy it". which technically means that the device aims to improve the lives of the North Korean Citizens, especially the children.
The Netflix clone device requires an HMDI port and a high-speed modem for it to function well, something which most North Korea Citizens doesn't have; This fact will most likely reduce the already small number of people in North Korea who might enjoy the device.
