Porn and Top Gear and Angry Birds have all been downloaded to computers by internet users in North Korea - a country with notoriously restrictive online policies.

Few people in North Korea can access the internet which means citizens are starved of any information besides government propaganda.

But according to Scan Eye, which monitors BitTorrent, a protocol for sharing files over the internet, IP addresses in Pyongyang, shows that 178 files have been downloaded.

Top Gear is one of 178 files downloaded to computers by internet users in North Korea - a country with notoriously restrictive online policies

The downloads by computers registered in Pyongyang include Modern Family, The Martin Lewis Money Show and The Apprentice.

On the list there is also downloads of Japanese and US pornography and of several computer games, including Angry Birds.

Ernesto Van Der Sar, who edits the TorrentFreak blog, told The Telegraph that while it is possible to spoof IP addresses, it was unlikely that anyone was routing their traffic through North Korea.

'These IP addresses are registered to North Korea and there is no known Virtual Network Provider operating in that range,' he said.

There were also downloads of Japanese and American pornography and of several computer games, including Angry Birds

'This makes it likely that the traffic is indeed originating from the area.'

Computer and cellphone use is gaining ground in North Korea's larger cities.

However, most North Koreans only have access to a domestic Intranet system, not the World Wide Web.

For North Koreans, internet use is still strictly regulated and allowed only with approval.

Computers at Pyongyang's main library at the Grand People's Study House are linked to a domestic service that allows them to read only state-run media online and access a trove of reading materials approved by North Korean officials.

The downloads by computers registered in Pyongyang (pictured)

But even the local Intranet is limited to the politically sound among the 24 million strong population, according to Kim Heung-kwang, a North Korean computer engineering expert who defected to South Korea in 2004.

'I think around 100,000 people can use Intranet.

'There's a North Korean version of portal service called 'Naenara' (My Country) and people can download content posted there,' he said.

'People could do emails and chats until 2008, then the government shut down these services... (Now) It's all about digital content from propaganda papers such as Rodong Sinmun (the main ruling party daily) or little games.'

According to North Korean law, the punishment for using anti-regime or 'bourgeois' cultural content ranges from three months to two years of hard labour.

In severe cases, the code allows up to five years of re-education through labor.



