Here's a new idea: Investing in N Korea

THE new flavour of the year may be investing in North Korea. The self-isolated country is being wooed both by America and South Korea with diplomatic phrases that describe it as "brimming with prosperity", and an extraordinary proposal to create "three economic belts" connecting the two Koreas.

North Korea, too, has been liberalising its economy to attract foreign companies, and several Western and Asian companies are already keen to invest in the impoverished nation as peace appears tantalisingly within grasp.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo broke the news that many investors were eagerly waiting for, when he declared on May 13 that if the Pyongyang regime agrees to fully dismantle its nuclear weapons programme, then the US would allow American companies to invest in its energy, infrastructure and agriculture sectors, all of which the country desperately needs to develop.