SEOUL, August 28./ITAR-TASS/. South Korea will help North Korea (DPRK) to attract foreign investment if Pyongyang gives up its nuclear ambitions, South Korea’s finance official said on Thursday.

Choi Kyung-hwan, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Strategy and Finance, said, “If North Korea decides to abandon its nuclear weapons, we will cooperate with Northeast Asian countries to actively support North Korea’s accession to international financial organisations and its attraction of international investment.”

Speaking at a forum that discussed economic co-operation among Asian countries, Choi promised that the government and other Asian neighbours will push to set up a development bank for Northeast Asian countries that would help the North build the infrastructure needed to support the lives of its impoverished people, the Yonhap news agency reported. He said there is a “historic task” lying ahead for Asian countries to turn Northeast Asia into a “global economic hub,” adding that the Seoul government recognises the importance of regional co-operation to achieve that objective.

Emphasising the particular importance of cooperation in the energy field, he said that Seoul will pave the way for East Asian countries to participate in joint natural resource development projects in the region. “Northeast Asia is a region where countries with surging energy demand and countries with a great potential for energy supply co-exist,” he said. “We need to actively seek new measures for energy cooperation that can bring a win-win outcome and bring stability to the global energy market.