North Korea eyes foreign investment

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called for a "radical" economic renewal for his country and an end to decades of conflict with South Korea. According to an article published on Saturday by the daily "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" (FAZ), Pyongyang is preparing to open up the country's economy to foreign investors. Moreover, it has enlisted the assistance of German economists and lawyers to lay the groundwork for the move. "There is a master plan," one of the economists involved in the plan told the paper. "They want to open up this year." The economist told the paper that the country is primarily interested in modernizing its laws relating to foreign investment. However, North Korea is not intending to follow the Chinese model, which called for the creation of special economic zones for foreign investors, the economist told the FAZ. "Rather, they are interested in the Vietnamese model, in which specific companies were chosen as recipients of investments," the source said.