North Korea's nominal head of state met with the chief of Egypt's Orascom Telecom, which provides mobile phone services to the communist nation, according to Pyongyang's official news agency Thursday.

   Kim Young-nam, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, the North's rubber-stamp legislature, had "a friendly talk" with Naguib Sawiris, Orascom's chairman and CEO, the Korean Central News Agency said.

   The KCNA did not provide further details.

   According to Orascom, the number of mobile phone users in North Korea jumped to more than 535,000 as of March last year, up 420 percent from the same time the previous year. (Yonhap News)