Cell-Phone Diplomacy

By Donald Macintyre

Only the most elite citizens of North Korea are allowed by the government to use cell phones. But that hasn't stopped Samsung, the South Korean consumer-electronics giant, from looking north for a celebrity to pitch its latest handsets. The company announced last week that it has hired dancer Cho Myung Ae as a model to help sell its Anycall mobile phones, which the Samsung ads claim can be used anywhere in the world--with the possible exception of North Korea, where citizens need government permission to even talk to foreigners. "It's symbolic," says Lee Jeong Eun, a spokeswoman for Cheil Communications, the Samsung affiliate producing the four-part ad series. "North Korea is the closest country to us, but we can't call there."

Cho's commercials are expected to begin airing by early July and will be the first to feature a North Korean who is not a defector. The famed beauty already has an online fan club in South Korea with more than 16,000 members; admirers set up the site after she performed in Seoul at an inter-Korean reconciliation event in 2002. Cheil says Cho will be paid an amount similar to what South Korean entertainers get for TV spots. Industry insiders estimate that could be as much as $200,000--or roughly 14,000 times what the average North Korean earns in a year. --By Donald Macintyre