The South Korean government is seeking to assist North Korea in generating the economic statistics required to join international financial institutions (IFIs), documents seen this week by NK News showed.

In a public bid seeking private sector assistance in the project, Statistics Korea (KOSTAT) said the demand for reliable North Korean statistics had increased amid growing inter-Korean cooperation and plans for Pyongyang to join IFIs like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

Subcontractors in the scheme are being asked to come up with measures designed to complement the KOSTAT’s current systems and to generate “credible statistics of North