▲ A commemorative photo of Orascom’s Naguib Sawiris and Kim Young Nam in Pyongyang yesterday (© Yonhap)

North Korea now has more than one million legal cell phone subscribers, Orascom Telecom revealed yesterday in a regulatory filing reported by Bloomberg.

The Egyptian firm disclosed the information while its former CEO Naguib Sawiris was visiting North Korea. He met with Kim Young Nam, the Supreme People’s Assembly Permanent Chairperson, at Mansudae Assembly Hall in Pyongyang yesterday.

Kim and Sawiris exchanged opinions on Orascom Telecom’s wireless mobile phone business and investments in North Korea and also regarding the Ryukyung Hotel, which Orascom agreed to invest in when it was given the green light to operate a cell phone network in the country. The meeting was also attended by the head of North Korea’s Joint Ventures Committee, Lee Gwang Geun.

The total number of subscribers does not include those people using Chinese cell phones illegally in the Sino-North Korean border region.