The number of mobile phone subscribers in North Korea has surpassed one million.

Egyptian company Orascom Telecom, the communist state's mobile telecommunications provider, made the figure public on Thursday.

Company Chairman Naguib Sawiris is currently visiting North Korea and apparently met with parliamentary chief, Kim Yong-nam, to exchange views on cell phone projects in the North. The two are also said to have discussed the construction of a hotel in Pyongyang that is funded by Orascom Telecom.

In December 2008, Orascom established the North’s first mobile operator, “Koryolink,” after signing a deal that allows the company to offer services throughout the country over a 25-year period. The deal gave the Cairo-based firm 75 percent ownership of a subsidiary in which North Korea's state postal system owns the remaining 25 percent.

At the end of June last year, the number of mobile phone subscribers in the North exceeded 600-thousand before surging to 809-thousand at the end of September.