Foreign assets 'safe' in North Korea, regime's lawyers say

SEOUL, April 2 (UPI) -- North Korean lawyers are in Beijing and Shanghai to promote foreign investment in the Kim Jong Un regime, according to Chinese state media.

The Global Times reported Tuesday Pyongyang's attorneys are on tour, and recently participated in a seminar on Monday hosted by Chinese law firm Deheng Law Group.

The attorneys will be busy until April 13, as they hold briefings on North Korea foreign investment law and discuss the regime's 26 economic development zones in the Chinese cities of Jinan, Qingdao, Shanghai and Shenzhen, according to the report.

The North Korean lawyers are affiliated with the Korea External Economic Law Consulting Office, or KEELCO, of Pyongyang.

So Jong Chan, chief of the delegation, said North Korea is open to sole and joint investment proposals from foreign partners in the areas of manufacturing, farming, transportation and communication. So said the North Korean government is "recruiting" foreign investors for the Pyongyang International Exhibition Center. He added North Korea would protect foreign assets in the country.

Liu Kejiang, the director of Deheng Law Group, said the tour is "aimed at helping investors understand North Korea's investment and trade policies in advance of the lifting of U.N. sanctions."

Da Zhigang, director of the Institute of Northeast Asian Studies at the Heilongjiang Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times China is complying with international sanctions. The analyst said he foresees North Korea integrating economically in Northeast Asia "after the international sanctions are lifted," according to the report.

North Korea's promotion of investing comes at a time when the United Nations Security Council is calling again for the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

The IAEA said Tuesday it is always ready to inspect North Korea's nuclear facilities once a denuclearization decision is made, according to News 1.