Correction: While this is the first time this video has been made available online, according nkeconwatch’s Curtis Melvin this is a shortened version of an introductory video given to people who travelled to North Korea for an economic summit in 2013.

North Korea released a video advertising its special economic zones (SEZs), complete with English subtitles, investment guidelines and 3D graphics via its Voice of Korea foreign news service Monday.

The video was released on the stimmekoreas YouTube channel and features footage from the DPRK’s economic and touristic development zones.

In a possibly mistranslated section of the video entitled “Peculiar Economic Development Zones of Korea,” a North Korean academic attempts to allay potential investor fears, talking up legal frameworks protecting foreign investors in the DPRK.

“We have laws related to the special economic zones including the Law on Investment of Foreigners … We have a legal foundation to ensure the legitimate rights and interests of foreign investors through the rules of the enforcement of the laws,” Hong Chol Hwa, director of the the Law Institute under the Academy of Social Sciences says during the video.

The video also details the economic advantages of investing in North Korea, citing low taxation against a backdrop of eye-catching – though not very information-dense – 3D bar charts.

According to the video’s narration, businesses looking to develop infrastructure in the DPRK will receive further tax breaks.

“Preferential treatment is specifically given to the infrastructure development enterprises, in the special economic zones of the DPRK,” the video says.

Though it does not specify what kind of projects would be covered by the incentives, a recent NK News investigation indicated that North Korea’s electricity provision capabilities have degraded in recent years.

“If the incentives offered seem to have increased over time, it might say something about infrastructure declines getting worse,” David Von Hippel, senior researcher at the Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainability told NK News.

The video cites the Rason SEZ in the country’s northeast as a model for future foreign investment.

According to the video’s narration, the Rason SEZ has “different kinds of communication services, including international communications, satellite television and internet are successfully ensured thanks to the establishment of the North East Asian Telecommunications Company.”

While the region probably does have better connectivity than many other areas of the DPRK, it is likely not as extensive as the video claims.

“It’s hard to imagine anyone taking that as an amazingly positive thing. Really it’s the absolute minimum,” said Simon Cockerell, general manager of Koryo Tours, who has been to North Korea more than a hundred times.

Toward the end of the video, a graphic depicts what looks to be the locations of some of the DPRK’s economic and trade missions and partners. Though blurry, North Korea appears connected to countries in Europe, South America, Africa and the Middle East.

The video comes on the heels of a recent investment seminar held last week at the Mount Kumgang tourism resort on the DPRK’s east coast.

According to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the seminar was focused on the area’s long-term development. It followed a ground-breaking ceremony for new construction in the region held on May 20.

“I would say it was an interesting start, but perhaps they are being a little optimistic in terms of expecting confident investors to put millions into some unproven projects,” Cockerell, who attended the seminar, told NK News.

Despite the positive signals, North Korea will have to work hard to dispel a long-standing wariness of doing business within its borders.

According to an article published last week in the Global Times, recent reforms enacted by the DPRK aren’t enough to guarantee smooth passage through the DPRK’s tricky investment climate.

“The basic features of North Korean ‘reform’ measures are improving the policy flexibility, introducing new management styles and bringing the function of the market into full play, without changing its fundamental system,” said Cao Shigong, a member of the Korean Peninsula Research Society, Chinese Association of Asia-Pacific Studies.

Featured image: Voice of Korea