Buying N. Korean currency 'will make us rich someday'
Jim Rogers predicts that North Korea’s currency will be worth a lot more one day. / Courtesy of Twitter
By Lee Han-soo
Rogers Holdings and Beeland Interests chairman Jim Rogers has spoken out about betting in favor of North Korea.
In an interview with Real Vision TV, a private streaming media service, the famous investor, known to Koreans as the “Indiana Jones of Wall Street,” said North Korea showed similar traits as China did in the 1980s.
"If we all bought North Korean currency, we'd all be rich someday," Rogers said. "Well, North Korea today is where China was in 1981.”
He said the hermit kingdom had taken huge strides to attract foreign investments, such as creating free trade zones. He also noted the vast increase in Chinese and Russian investment.
He said the changes started when Kim Jong-un came to power.
"There are 15 free trade zones there now,” he said. “You can take bicycle tours of North Korea, if you want. You can take movie tours.
Jim Rogers / Courtesy of Twitter
“I’m sure if his father were alive, he'd hang him. If his grandfather was alive, he'd torture him and then hang him, you know, for some of the things he's doing.”
However, investing in the secluded nation is close to impossible because North Korea is continuously increasing tension with the rest of the world by firing missiles and holding nuclear tests.
Rogers said that because of increased international sanctions, his lawyers told him he could not invest in North Korea.
He had tried to invest in a Chinese group that has a bank in North Korea.