SINGAPORE -- A startup scene is quietly brewing in North Korea -- with the blessing of the government.
A group of about 15 North Koreans is visiting incubators and coworking spaces in Southeast Asia to learn what startup life is like, and if they should consider setting up similar coworking shops as well. They visited The Hub on Friday, where Mashable Asia's office is.
They were curious about the business model of the startups here, as well as the space itself. They wanted to know if companies here had to register their startups with the Singapore government, and if they paid for the coworking space, or if the government did.
The group is in the region for a three-month stretch, and had just been in Kuala Lumpur to visit Malaysia's Multimedia Development Corporation (Mdec) and the Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (Magic) -- two government-run bodies in the tech and startup space.
Most of the group were academics and researchers at government-owned tech firms in North Korea -- not at the startups themselves, apparently. The trip was organised by Choson Exchange, a nonprofit dedicated to helping North Koreans develop business skills.
The North Koreans said they have been tasked with figuring out how to build out the infrastructure to encourage people to set up new companies.
Speaking through a translator, a senior researcher for one of the companies said he was wrapping his head around all the businesses models he had recently been exposed to, and how he might adapt some of those back home.
"Yeah, we are a socialist country not capitalist, so we have to find a way of making startups work in a 'hybrid' setup," he said.
For startups there, that means they don't have access to private investors easily, for instance. The government pays for most of a startup's operating costs through "subsidies," he said, but could not comment on what happens to successful startups that become profitable.
How to get noticed as a North Korean startup
People with startup ideas typically begin by writing to the government. "The government will help to solve their problems if they write," said one of the participants in the group.
Inventors or people with new business ideas also often head to domestic expos to showcase what they have, he said.
One of the researchers said the North Korean startup scene isn't limited just to tech, but that the country continues to work at buffing its 29 special economic zones.
North Korea's first such zone was Rason, a manufacturing and tourism hub set up in the early '90s, which saw moderate investment of $37 million from 51 foreign businesses. The country later set up 20 more between 2013 and 2014.
But some analysts say that despite these efforts, the country's judicial framework and lack of infrastructure continue to hold these zones back from making significant changes in the country's economy.
IHS published a paper this year which said that there remain "core obstacles" for sustainable and safe foreign investments, because of North Korea's volatile relationship with other governments.
One of the researchers didn't seem troubled by this. "The government wants to help," he said, simply.
He also looked at me a little blankly when I tried to explain Mashable and digital news sites in general -- unsurprising since much of the country runs on a closed Internet system with some news sites reportedly blocked.
Of the name cards I collected, none of them had personal email addresses on them either, just a generic company-wide address on each.
Here's a view of the networking this morning: