SEOUL: North Korea has recalled mobile phones from its citizens, nearly a year and a half after the service was introduced in the communist country, South Korean media reports said. A North Korean official attending an inter-Korean economic meeting in Pyongyang confirmed that mobile phones were banned from May 25, according to pool reports. “It’s true that mobile phone use was prohibited,” the official was quoted as saying. North Korea’s mobile service began in November 2002, with products from Motorola Corp of the United States and Nokia Corporation of Finland on the market in Pyongyang, Yonhap news agency said.

Experts believe North Korea had introduced the mobile technology to make communications convenient but later realised the device caused floods of foreign culture into the reclusive country, Yonhap said.