North Korea despot Kim Jong-un has launched TV screaming – sorry, streaming – service.
And this is no “ Netflix and chill” situation as most shows are propaganda-based or lifestyle documentaries.
One film on Sobaeksu TV, A Broad Bellflower, highlights the impact on Koreans of the Japanese occupation, while the film Myself In The Distant Future is about a man who becomes a model worker to impress a girl.
Hong Gil Dong is a series about a Robin Hood-like hero who attacks greedy landowners.
But the smart TV service does at least offer Kim’s oppressed people karaoke, as well as cookery and medical shows.
The intelligent digital television, known as Sobaeksu, was developed by the Sinhung Information Technology Trading Corporation, state media reports.
As well as watching films and the news, users can also play games and read books using software originally designed for mobile phones and tablets.
Photos showed that users can use the Sobaeksu TV to open files, play games, and use apps including “Korean food” and “Common sense on family medicine.”
A karaoke programme, known a “HwiPaRam (Whistle),” contains around 1700 songs, state media said.
The Smart TV, it continued, is equipped with a “voice search function,” allowing users to switch channels, control the volume, and manipulate apps and multimedia through their voice.
“If I cannot think of a song’s title and I only sing the melody, it immediately searches [the song],” a customer called Choe Jin Son said. “It’s really good.”
The new TV also features several apps targeting housewives saying that they can search for information on cooking, interior design, and family medicine, according to a report on the NK News website.
A photo of the main display of the Sobaeksu TV also showed that users can read books using the “Kwangmyong Book 1.22” app and play games including Korean-style chess and poker.
The TV’s name is derived from a tributary of the Amnok river, located in the Mount Paektu region of Samjiyon County.
