North Korea’s elite have turned to China’s three dominant internet companies to shop, read news and stream films after Pyongyang clamped down on Facebook and other western sites, according to cyber security experts.

While internet access is a rare privilege in the hermit kingdom and accorded to an estimated 200 high ranking officials and close family members, the crackdown demonstrates Pyongyang’s increased efforts to avoid any international scrutiny of online activity since December, according to US-based cyber intelligence group Recorded Future.

Between then and mid-March, the group found that the North Korean leadership “nearly totally abandoned western social media”, instead turning to China’s Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu. At the same time they increased obfuscation techniques, such as use of virtual private networks, by 1,200 per cent.