North Korea's Kim Jong Eun reportedly visited "May 11 Factory" which manufactures high-tech goods. Aside from taking a look at the mobile phone being assembled in the factory, it was also the first time that Kim gave his family's stamp of approval for mass production of such phones.

Rumours have it that the visit of the supreme leader of North Korea, an anti-American government, was a first step for the country to finally launch its own smartphone device to compete with US-designed devices like Google's Android OS and Apple's iPhone.

According to the Daily NK, a report from Rodong Sinmum revealed Kim Jong Eun looked into the mobile phone called Arirang to learn about its specs, quality and physical appearance. He was happy to know that the application of the said model was created in Korean style. He "noted that the mass-production of goods with the DPRK trademark can instill national pride and self-respect into the Korean People."

Another report from The Telegraph said that the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that Arirang was fashioned after Google's Android OS. Some tech bloggers said that some of its features, like the claim of having high pixels, were patterned after Apple's iPhone.

Arirang was said to be produced exclusively inside North Korea's borders and this was the character that Kim Jong Eun was after. The report from KCNA said that Kim Jong-un "highly appreciated the creative ingenuity and patriotic enthusiasm with which the officials and employees of the factory laid a solid foundation for mass-producing hand phones by building a new modern hand phone production process."

However, tech analysts said that the device being looked into by Kim Jong Eun was actually produced in China and just locally assembled in North Korea.

"One likelihood with this North Korean Arirang phone is that all the parts are actually made in China, and final assembly is done in North Korea. Or, possibly, the whole smartphone is made in China, and only the final boxing is done in the rather sparse plant that Kim Jong-un toured," wrote Steven Millward.

This is not the first time that North Korea launched its own manufactured mobile phones. In 2008, North Korea already commissioned the Egyptian firm, Orascom, for its exclusive mobile phones, exclusive in such a way that all incoming and outgoing calls to and from other countries were blocked within North Korea. Orascom claimed that there were already 2 million North Koreans with mobile phones; however, higher ups of the country opted for mobile phones from the US and other western countries. Even Kim Jong-un himself was rumoured to be using HTC smartphone.