Recent signs of progress and reform slowly emerging from within the DPRK such as the "leap day deal" have been hampered by the North Korea's Unha-3 rocket launch and its increasing vitriol targeted at South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.  The fluid and often hostile nature of politics on the Korean Peninsula, along with strict international sanctions, has meant that foreign economic investment into the DPRK has been extremely limited for some time.

But to assume business in the DPRK is impossible or impractical is simply incorrect. In this interview, NKNews speaks to Roger Barrett, Marketing manager of Korea Business Consultants: a businessman who has been involved in trade and investment in the DPRK since the 1990’s. Having weathered the difficulties inherent in such business, and having been witness to many of the extraordinary events that have taken place in that country over the last two decades, Barrett offers his own unique insight here on how he came to do business in the DPRK, how such business is carried out, and what he thinks the future holds for this intriguing country. In Barrett’s view, the horizon is a little sunnier now for the DPRK – and the time is right for investment.