Peace doesn't pay: How foreign companies have lost a fortune in North Korea

SEOUL – Months before the first summit between the leaders of the two Koreas in 2000, South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Inc. invested $730,000 in Pyongyang's top computer lab. North Korean programmers there would develop online chess games and food recipes for Samsung to sell outside the North. Samsung quit the business as inter-Korea relations later deteriorated, and the lab -- Korea Computer Center -- was blacklisted last year for its alleged contribution to the North's weapons program. As companies from South Korea to Russia and China again look to cash in on easing tensions with Pyongyang, Samsung's now defunct businesses in Pyongyang and hundreds of similar failed joint ventures underline North Korea's status as one of the world's highest-risk investment destinations. Yet days before the historic meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore, a conference in Seoul to explore investment opportunities in North Korea drew about 600 attendees.