Tokyo, Dec. 16 : More than six years after it experimented with mobile phones, the North Korean Government has launched a mobile phone service.
Described as one of the world''s most secretive and tightly controlled states, the launch is seen as striking in a country where the tuning of television sets and radios is limited to state channels and internet access is restricted to senior government and military officials.
Officials concluded a deal with the Egyptian telecommunications group Orascom to launch a third-generation mobile network, but the service is likely to be available to only a few of North Korea''s 23 million inhabitants, the Guardian reports.