Business
Foreign investment confined to special economic zones
Published statutes provide for equity and contractual joint ventures and for wholly foreign-owned enterprises inside designated zones such as Rason. Enforcement and repatriation cannot be verified.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — Investment is channelled through state trading corporations and zone authorities rather than a general company registry.
Governing law
- Law on Equity Joint Ventures
- Law on Foreign-Invested Business and Foreign Individual Tax
- Rason Economic and Trade Zone Law
In practice
The DPRK has published a substantial body of foreign-investment legislation since the 1980s, most of it directed at joint ventures with Chinese counterparties in border zones. In practice, UN Security Council sanctions resolutions prohibit most joint ventures with DPRK entities outright, so the statutory framework is largely inoperative for anyone subject to those measures. There is no independent commercial court, no published contract case law and no convertible-currency banking channel that is lawful under sanctions, so the recorded texts should not be read as a usable investment route.