Red Star OS: North Korea’s Linux Behind the Great Firewall

While Russia is busy building “whitelists” of a few dozen state-approved software tools, North Korea has been running a completely closed digital ecosystem for over two decades. Since around the year 2000, the country has maintained its own national intranet, known as Kwangmyong (광명) — sometimes transliterated as Quijen — a domestic network entirely disconnected from the global Internet.

Kwangmyong hosts roughly 5,000 local websites, all accessible only through a single centralized proxy server. No external connections are allowed — neither inbound nor outbound. All data remains within state-approved boundaries.

The Birth of Red Star OS

Parallel to the development of this internal network, North Korea also built its own national operating system. Enter Red Star OS, a Fedora Linux–based distribution with the KDE desktop environment, developed by the Korea Computer Center (KCC).

The first two major versions appeared in the late 2000s and early 2010s as replacements for Windows XP, which had dominated most computers in the country. Little is known about the first release, but version 2.0 gained attention when it was leaked online by a Russian student studying in Pyongyang.

From Fedora to “North Korean macOS”

Early versions of Red Star OS featured a conventional KDE Linux interface. But starting with version 3.0 (Build 3.20), the system took a dramatic visual turn — inspired by Kim Jong-un’s admiration for Apple products.

The result was a striking macOS clone, complete with /Applications directories, .app-style packages, and a polished desktop interface eerily similar to that of “capitalist pigs,” as some foreign commentators joked.

Despite being Linux under the hood, Red Star OS is not open-source — nor is it free. Earlier releases reportedly sold for $15–20, while version 3.0 cost just $0.25, all under strict government licensing and monitoring.

Surveillance Built into the OS

Red Star OS is not merely a functional system; it’s also a tool for surveillance and control. It comes bundled with a so-called “antivirus” that protects the government more than the user. Any removable media (USB, CD, DVD) connected to the system is scanned and digitally watermarked with a unique identifier tied to the device and user.

These watermarks are automatically reported to servers controlled by North Korea’s state security agency, allowing authorities to trace the spread of “banned materials” such as South Korean dramas, Western movies, or outside information.

The OS also logs keystrokes and monitors user activity in the background, ensuring that nothing happens beyond state oversight — all without user consent or visibility.

Naenara Browser and the Kwangmyong Intranet

The default browser, Naenara (내나라) — meaning “My Country” — is a fork of Firefox 3.5, already outdated even at the time of release. Naenara works exclusively within the Kwangmyong intranet, accepting only TLS certificates issued by DPRK authorities, effectively blocking any external traffic. Interestingly, users can install browser extensions — though with no access to the global Internet, the feature is largely symbolic.

Office Suite and Compatibility Layers

Red Star OS ships with Sogwang Office, a homegrown office suite modeled after OpenOffice, with macOS-inspired icons and UI. It also includes WINE, the Windows compatibility layer, allowing users to run older Windows applications — easing the transition from the “bourgeois Windows” to the national Linux alternative.

Final Thoughts

Red Star OS represents a fascinating intersection of technology, ideology, and surveillance. Visually, it’s polished and modern; functionally, it’s capable enough for an isolated network. But at its core, it’s designed for total information control.

Like Western operating systems, it offers usability, aesthetics, and productivity — but the trade-off is far steeper: complete loss of privacy. If in the West users surrender their data to corporations, in North Korea, they hand it directly to the State.

A curious and technically intriguing system — but also a stark reminder of what happens when software stops serving its users and starts serving power.