Nokia, the world’s largest handset manufacturer, looks set to return to South Korea ahead of an expected opening up of the country’s handset regulations. According to local reports, the Finnish vendor is in talks with the region’s largest operator, SK Telecom, on supplying handsets to the operator by the end of this year. Nokia has withdrawn from the South Korean market on two previous occasions after failing to win a significant market share, the last time being in January 2003.

Last month MBB reported that South Korea’s three mobile operators are working together to overturn government regulations which block foreign-designed handsets from the market. To date local manufacturers Samsung, LG and Pantech have dominated the country’s handset market. Nokia already has a large manufacturing facility in South Korea but currently exports all of its locally produced handsets.