Join FAS Telecommunications Telecommunications infrastructure is primitive.
Few citizens own a phone and phone numbers are treated with a degree of secrecy.
There is no published phone directory and many firms are reluctant to give out their phone, fax or telex numbers, and the phone numbers and addresses of government departments are kept secret. The telecommunications equipment itself, with the exception of the system installed in the Rajin-Sonbong free trade zone by Loxley Telecommunications, is generally 1950s Soviet technology and is poorly maintained. 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.