Sources recently returned from North Korea said the communist authorities are expected to lift the ban on the use of mobile phones early next year.
The reclusive state has banned the use of mobile phones since May 2004 and have confiscated some 20,000 handsets, mostly from government officials and business people.
North Korea's state security agency believed that the deadly train blast in Ryongchon in April 2004 was a botched attempt to harm Kim Jong-Il, and that a mobile phone was used to spark the explosion. It also believed cell phone calls leaked news of the massive explosion.
"North Korea is likely to lift the ban and return the confiscated handsets on the occasion of Kim Jong-Il's birthday on Feb. 16 or his late father Kim Il-Sung's April 15 birthday," said a source who recently returned from a business trip to North Korea.
Thai Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon asked North Korean Post and Telecommunications Minister Ryu Yong-Sop last August to revoke a ban on mobile phone use in the country.
During his visit to Pyongyang, the Thai diplomatic chief expressed hope that the ban would lifted by the end of this year, according to diplomatic sources.
Thailand's Loxley Public, through the joint venture, signed a 30-year contract to operate telephone and telecommunication networks in North Korea in 1995. It provides basic phone lines to about 8,000 clients in North Korea's Rajin-Sonbong special economic zone.
