KT Opens Telephone Office in North

A KT telephone office will be opened in North Korea for the first time since the end of the Korean War. The company revealed on December 9, “A KT branch will be established in Gaesong Industrial Complex in concurrence with the opening of the communications network that will connect Seoul directly to the industrial complex in North Korea.”

In all fields so far, such as in Hyundai Asan’s Mt. Geumgang tourism business and the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization’s (KEDO) light-water reactor business, North-South communication had relied entirely on an international communications network that makes a detour around Japan.

KT explained, “This is very meaningful in that this will be the first time a KT telephone office has entered North Korea. The telephone office in Gaesong Industrial Complex could be a chance to propel cooperation between the two Koreas in communication.”

Nam Joong-soo, president and CEO of KT, said, “We are ready to promote communications businesses with North Korea if we have the chance. This is a great opportunity to open North Korea as a market, but we are also planning public works that only KT can do.”

Fees will be $0.4 per minute for the North-South line, and $0.03 within Gaesong Industrial Complex. The installation fee for installing a line in the industrial complex will be $100, and the basic fee will be $10 a month.

Do-Young Kim nirvana1@donga.com