Koryolink, the fledgling North Korean mobile operator, claims to have signed-up 20,000 customers by the end of March, reports Associated Press, citing a Japanese-based newspaper considered a mouthpiece for the North Korean regime. The mobile network – the country’s first since an earlier, short lived network was shut down in 2004 – launched in December 2008 and is a joint-venture between Egypt-based Orascom (75 percent) and the local state-owned body, Korea Posts and Telecom Corp (KPTC), which holds the remaining 25 percent. According to the report, the network covers the capital city, Pyongyang, and a highway linking Pyongyang to the northern city of Hyangsan. It also cites comments from Yun Gwang Chun, a Koryolink official, who claims that Koryolink aims to expand the network to the entire country by 2012.

According to earlier reports, Orascom’s license in the country – officially known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea or DPRK – reportedly allows it to offer mobile services over a 25-year period with an exclusivity period of four years. The company is expected to invest US$400 million in network infrastructure in the country over the next three years. Orascom has also brushed aside concerns that the authoritarian nature of the state will severely limit the number of people able to access mobile devices and services. However, Associated Press notes that the network does not allow contact with the outside world, or with the special telephone networks that foreigners are normally permitted to use inside the country.