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North Korea Telecommunications
Based on the limited information available in the early 1990s
about the country's telecommunications network, telephone
services--an estimated 30,000 telephones in 1985--mainly were
available at government offices, factories, cooperatives, and
other workplaces. By 1970 automatic switching facilities were in
use in P'yongyang, Siniju, Hamhng, and Hyesan. A few public
telephone booths were beginning to appear in P'yongyang around
1990. Ordinary citizens do not have private telephone lines.
There are international connections via Moscow and Beijing, and
in late 1989 international direct dialing service was introduced
from Hong Kong. A satellite ground station near P'yongyang
provides direct international communications using the
International Telecommunications Satellite Corporation (Intelsat)
Indian Ocean satellite. A satellite communications center was
installed in P'yongyang in 1986 with French technical support. An
agreement to share in Japan's telecommunications satellites was
reached in 1990. North Korea joined the Universal Postal Union in
1974 but has direct postal arrangements with only a select group
of countries.
The Korean Central Television Station is located in
P'yongyang, and there also are stations in major cities,
including Ch'ngjin, Kaesng, Hamhng, Haeju, and Siniju. There
are three channels in P'yongyang but only one channel in other
cities. Imported Japanese-made color televisions have a North
Korean brand name superimposed, but nineteen-inch black-and-white
sets have been produced locally since 1980. One estimate places
the total number of television sets in use in the early 1990s at
250,000 sets.
North Korea has two amplitude modulation (AM) radio
broadcasting networks, P'yongyang Broadcasting Station (Radio
P'yongyang) and Korean Central Broadcasting Station, and one
frequency modulation (FM) network, P'yongyang FM Broadcasting
Station. All three networks have stations in major cities that
offer local programming. There also is a powerful shortwave
transmitter for overseas broadcasts in several languages. In the
early 1990s, North Korea had an estimated 3.75 million radio
sets; radio dials, however, are fixed to receive only designated
frequencies, preventing reception of foreign broadcasts.
Data as of June 1993
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