Online shopping, North Korea-style: Pyongyang unveils mobile-friendly retail website
North Koreans can purchase local goods online, but access to the web remains strictly off limits
Online shopping has arrived in North Korea, though it's as isolated from the rest of the world as the country itself, and the vast majority of North Koreans lack the technology to use it.
The website Okryu, aimed primarily at smartphone users, offers products from North Korean companies including women's clothing, bags, shoes, medicines, cosmetics, furniture and food.
Payment, in local currency only, is taken from the main North Korean debit card system.
To keep it all hermetically sealed, the site works not on the World Wide Web but on North Korea's own intranet, a self-contained version of the internet set up and maintained strictly for domestic use.
North Koreans call it the "domestic web" and it's been around for years, but not used very much, largely because very few North Koreans have personal-use computers that can go online at all.
Smartphone use, however, is growing, and Okryu's presence suggests that the government does not consider the technology to be a threat to the country's rigid social order.