Entrepreneurs in North Korea aren't as rare as you'd think

North Korea may seem like barren ground for entrepreneurs. But hearty founders have defied a lack of technology and support to start their own ventures, even before this week’s historic summit in Singapore raised the prospect of more economic opportunity. There’s an e-commerce site called Manmulsang — which means the everything store, in a nod to Amazon.com Inc. — and Okryu, a mobile-shopping service. 

There’s also a navigation app, Gildongmu 1.0, which means road friend. Founders need to overcome some unusual obstacles. The only way for customers to get new smartphone apps, for example, is to go to a brick-and-mortar store and download them. It’s the App Store for autocrats. Still, North Korea has allowed thousands of citizens to study entrepreneurship, despite any apparent conflict with socialist practices. Choson Exchange, a nonprofit group, has trained more than 2,000 North Koreans in their own country and Singapore in the past decade. Long before Kim Jong Un admired Singapore’s skyline from the Marina Bay Sands building ahead of his summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, many compatriots sipped beer on the same spot while visiting for classes on entrepreneurship and venture capital.