북한 투자기업의 분쟁해결방안 연구: 북한법을 중심으로

Abstract

As of 1984, when North Korea enacted the Equity Joint Venture Law, North Korea has been endeavoring to attract foreign investment. For the last 34 years, there has been numerous investment cases in North Korea, and during those processes, many disputes have occurred. This paper is about the dispute resolution options North Korea has based on its law when an foreign investment dispute arises, the advantages and disadvantages of each resolution method, and what future investment enterprises who wish to invest in North Korea should consider. Survey results show that until recently whenever a civil case arose in North Korea, most of them were solved through non-judicial methods. Although there are civil courts in North Korea, domestic cases are mostly dealt, thus leaving little room for civil cases. In such situations, foreign investors will wonder whether there is a reasonable way of resolving disputes in North Korea. Building a reasonable dispute resolution method will be critical for the outcome of investing in North Korea. This paper will go over real dispute cases of foreign investors and the respective suitable dispute resolution methods based on North Korean law. Furthermore, this paper notes the future of North Korea dispute resolution. Results indicate that there are many foreign investment disputes occurring in North Korea and that the dispute resolution methods allowed by North Korea law are numerous with their respective pros and cons. Thus, one needs to find the appropriate method for each differing disputes based on their characteristics and scale. If we accumulate data on categorized future disputes, it will become more predictable and transparent. When the resolution methods are set at a reasonable level, foreign investment in North Korea will flourish. Although it is up to North Korea to decide on the resolution methods, since the foreign investors are the one who are investing, North Korea should also consider the investors’ opinions. Also, since South Korea will soon start to invest in North Korea, it should take special interest in mutual exchanges of judicial assistance and legal entities.