Kim Jong-un is known to be a huge Apple fan and is shown here working on an iMac (Picture: Reuters/ KCNA)

North Korea has spent hundreds of thousands of pounds buying American gadgets which are then used to launch cyber attacks, a study has revealed.

The isolated ‘hermit nation’ spent $430,000 in the seven years between 2002 and 2017 buying computers and other electronic products, the analysis firm Recorded Future discovered.

It used ‘numerous third-party data sources’ to discover the devices North Korea’s elite use to access the global internet – even though the rest of the population is forbidden from going online.

Apple gadgets were particularly popular, with the Pyongyang elite owning several iPhones including the latest flagship X.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un looks at a device that was definitely not made in the USA

‘As has been widely publicized over the past several years, Kim Jong Un has been photographed on several occasions with Apple devices, and North Korean-made mobile phones have been assessed as mimicking Apple technology,’ it wrote in a statement.

‘While we cannot confirm the actual users behind the activity we see, our analysis indicates that numerous American and Western-manufactured devices are being used by North Korean elite to access the global internet.

‘At most, only the inner circle of North Korea’s leadership, such as party, military, and intelligence leaders and their families, are allowed to own computers and independently utilize the global internet. This is one of the datapoints we use to determine with such certainty that North Korea’s ruling elite are the users of this hardware and software.’

Kim Jong-un is actually a fan of American culture, with his ‘best friend’ basketballer Dennis Rodman claiming the chubby despot is a fan of music from the 1980s.

He has also been pictured with Apple gadgets including a Macbook laptop.

Yet his nation’s use of technology is not entirely benign, because the gadget it buys are probably used to conduct cyber attacks.

‘While the majority of North Korean cyber operations are likely conducted from abroad, a small minority historically have been conducted from territorial North Korea,’ Recorded Future added.

‘These operations have been conducted utilizing this very same hardware and software.

‘This means that minimally, U.S. technology has enabled North Korea’s destabilizing, disruptive, and destructive cyber operations as well as its internet-enabled circumvention of international sanctions.’

All the gadgets and software used in North Korea

Windows 7

Windows 8.1

Windows 2000

Windows XP

Windows 10

Microsoft Terminal Server

Samsung Galaxy S5

Samsung Galaxy J5

Samsung Galaxy S7

Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus

Huawei Mate 95c 6 v6

Apple iPhone 4S

Apple iPhone 5

Apple iPhone 5S

Apple iPhone 6

Apple iPhone 6S Plus

Apple iPhone 7 Plus

Apple iPhone 8 Plus

Apple iPhone X

Apple MacBook

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager server

Conexant Hasbani web servers

Ascend Communications[1] switches

F5 BIG-IP load balancer