Chinese cellphone shops in border cities are targeting North Korea-bound businesspeople with specially made phones, NK News has learned.

At one China Mobile store on Yanhe Road in Hunchun a discreet window sign advertises ‘DPRK phones’ (Chaoxian shouji) alongside pin-based call cards (IP cards) for calling into North Korea.

When asked about the phones, a sales assistant noted that normal, low-end Chinese cellphones could not be used inside the DPRK since the operating frequency of the mobile signal was different there.

North Korea’s Koryolink network uses a 2100MHz 3G frequency band only, while much of China’s mobile communication infrastructure continues to operate at 900 or 1800MHz, including that of China Mobile, according to its own website.

The bestselling DPRK-capable phones are made by Comio, a Chinese manufacturer based in Shenzhen, which also sells devices under other brands in countries outside China, notably Japan and India.

Each month the Hunchun-based shop sells several Comio handsets, basic devices – not smartphones, for a starting price of 299 RMB (around US$47).

The vendor noted that Chinese traders in nearby Rason and elsewhere prefer the Comio handsets since they are cheaper than smartphone alternatives and also cost much less than the DPRK’s domestically produced counterparts.

Chinese traders already in possession of a smartphone have no need to spend more money on another device, she however said. This is because many smartphones are already capable of being used in multiple regions, due to their antennae supporting a wider range of frequencies.

Foreign visitors have been able to take their own phones into North Korea since a ban was lifted in January 2013.

When asked whether it was possible to buy DPRK Koryolink SIM cards on the Chinese side of the border, however, several vendors stated that these were only available in North Korea itself.

Yet even having a DPRK-capable cellphone and SIM does not allow Chinese people doing business over the border to contact their Korean partners when back in China. For this purpose, the same shops offer DPRK-only IP cards which provide a special number to call and a code which is entered before dialing the DPRK number.

The cost of these cards, the only means of dialing into DPRK from China, is nevertheless considerable.

Calls to Rason from Hunchun, which borders directly on the Special Economic Zone, cost 4.6 RMB (US$0.73) per minute for example, with the cheapest available IP-cards having a face value of 200 RMB.

By contrast cards for dialing South Korea can be bought for as little as 20 RMB and 5 RMB (US$0.79) covers up to 100 minutes of calls.

The continuing communicative difficulties and costs of entering the DPRK market is, however, proving little disincentive to determined Chinese businesspeople at present.

A CNPolitics report late last year by Yu Tao of the UK’s University of Central Lancashire stated that at any one time there are between four and ten thousand Chinese businesspeople in Rason alone.

Author: NK News China Correspondent