North Korea is preparing to launch a mobile telephone system, with a communications switchboard and cellular phone terminals imported from China. The switchboard and terminals are produced by the telecommunications firm C, which supplies equipment to China's state-run mobile communications corporation, according to mobile communications experts in Seoul. "Since the Chinese-assembled switchboard has only several thousand circuits, the mobile phone system appears to be only for key party personnel, the administration and military stationed in Pyongyang," observed an expert. North Korean Communications Minister Ri Kum Bom's visit to China last September may have involved the introduction of the equipment, he added.

The introduction of a mobile phone network was apparently ordered by National Defense Commission Chairman Kim Jong Il, who reportedly said it was needed by April 15, 2002 (the anniversary of the birth of the late President Kim Il Sung), upon his return home from a tour of Shanghai, China last January

It is uncertain, however, if the North will manage to launch a cellular phone system in Pyongyang by April 15. The biggest hurdle is the fact that devices monitoring cellular phone conversations have yet to be secured, said the experts. Even if the supply of portable telephones is limited to key party, administration and military officials, whose ideologies and loyalty to the state are verified, Pyongyang would find it hard to open a mobile phone system without it being monitored, reasoned the experts, since there is no guarantee that the system won't be abused by dissidents.

The mobile communications switchboard the North has imported is said to be of code division multiple access (CDMA), in which letters and voice are coded and transmitted simultaneously.

Commenting on if it is appropriate for North Korea to open a mobile phone system in the capital only, a communications expert said, "Countries like the Ukraine, whose communications networks are less developed, have launched mobile telephone systems in an area or city only, before expanding them nationwide."

The introduction of a mobile phone system in Pyongyang is estimated to cost millions of US dollars, as a mobile communications switchboard alone costs nearly US$1 million, more expensive than a relay station, covering 10km in radius and for the system to operate, the network has to have a number of such stations.

(Lee Kyo-kwan, haedang@chosun.com )