Michael Hay, who founded and managed the longest-running foreign-backed law firm to be based in North Korea, died last Wednesday in South Korea, aged 58.

His death was confirmed by friends and former colleagues to NK News.

Hay – also a friend of this author – was well known among businesses and NGOs as one of the few lawyers to have ever successfully won commercial disputes in North Korea’s opaque legal system.

A dual British-French national and member of the New York bar, he founded Hay, Kalb & Associates in Pyongyang in 2004 after working for over a decade in the South Korean legal system.

His firm operated from the Pyongyang Hotel with a team comprising North Korean partners until 2016, when it suspended service amid growing international sanctions pressure and decreased foreign appetite to explore the DPRK market.

HK&A, which specialized in regulatory compliance, foreign investment, and dispute resolution, had by the time of its closure accrued thousands of hours experience negotiating between DPRK entities and foreign clients.

Hay first visited North Korea in 1998, he told NK Pro in a prior interview, as part of a delegation of the European Chamber of Commerce to test the waters as the country emerged from its notorious famine and near-economic collapse.

Having already worked with Chinese companies that did business in the DPRK, the trip was a chance to see the DPRK first-hand.

But while few others would have been as generous towards the country as he, Hay said the trip confirmed his belief that the DPRK held opportunities for those willing to look hard enough.

“That consolidated my desire to do more with them,” Hay explained at the time. “And I found it interesting that they were quite direct in their discussions.”

With the concept forming in his mind, he pitched the idea of setting up a law firm to contacts in-country.

And though he originally planned to bring in a major international partner, the concept quickly morphed into setting up his own firm, with the company fully operational by 2005.

While Hay’s knowledge of the North Korean regulatory system far surpassed most other Westerners working there, he said he always worked closely with locals to get anything done.

“My aim was to get in, try to get in close, not breach any rules of the DPRK, respect their internal working system, but work with the lawyers,” he told NK Pro in 2016.

“I wanted to have the ability to speak to foreign investors, encourage them if that was their desire or later desire, to take a look of North Korea with the comfort that they were talking to somebody who was close to the legislation.”

After departing the country in 2016, Hay took a short break from working actively on the North Korea portfolio.

But as summit diplomacy in 2018 replaced the high tensions of just a year before, commercial South Korean interest in North Korea quickly piqued.

It was in the fall of that year when he would return to the peninsula, in order to take up a post offering North Korea expertise to clients in the ROK through the Seoul-based firm, HMP Law.

Shortly after commencing that job, he took part in another interview with this website, this time in audio format on the NK News podcast, with host Jacco Zwetsloot.

Hay was as always positive about the future of North Korea, arguing Pyongyang took law very seriously when it came to foreign businesses operating in-country.

FRIENDS RECOLLECT

Friends and former colleagues expressed their regret at his passing in correspondence to NK News.

“Mike was a wonderful fellow, a good friend, and an inspiration to me,” said Evans Revere, one of the U.S. State Department’s former top Asia hands. “His ability to bridge cultures and societies (France and the UK, North and South Korea, the U.S. and Europe) was amazing.”

“He had a marvelous way of humanizing the North Korean people and explaining how they managed to survive despite their travails,” Revere continued.

“As an American, I was often overwhelmed by his love for my country and his optimism about our prospects – I am truly devastated to know he is gone from us.”

Nigel Cowie, a British businessman who worked for nearly two decades in North Korea until 2015, said Hay helped him professionally on numerous occassions.

“He represented me in arbitrations where we were trying to recover bad loans from local companies, on one particular occasion obtaining a ruling in our favour against a member company of our own joint venture partner,” Cowie said.

“On another instance dragged out over a very long period, he provided a robust defence in the case of a very bitter break-up of a joint venture in which our then company was the foreign partner; also acting on my behalf in the amicable sale of a stake in another JV,” he continued.

Cowie’s UK-based business partner, Ken Frost, said he was “very sorry to read about the death of Michael Hay.”

“I can attest to his professionalism, determination, diligence and good humour even during the most trying of circumstances,” Frost said. “Especially when the deck was stacked against us/him.”

He added that Hay’s “good humour and optimism will be missed, and the legal profession (especially that based in North Korea) is poorer for his loss.”

Hay’s many years in Pyongyang meant that he was also well known to diplomats and regular visitors from the NGO community.

“I am greatly sorry to hear about the sad passing of Michael Hay,” said Syed Sajjad Haider, Pakistan’s Ambassador to Kuwait – and former resident of Pyongyang.

“I have the honour of meeting him a few times and I always found him a person with highly professional values and dedication,” he said.

“His knowledge and experience of DPRK was unmatched and his services and skills will always be remembered in the years to come.”

Geoffrey See, the founder of Choson Exchange – a Singaporean NGO focusing on business capacity-building missions in the DPRK – said he met regularly with Hay during often challenging visits to the country.

“Working in Pyongyang trying to drive change is a lonely arduous endeavor as I am sure it was for Michael,” said See. “Meeting him for drinks at the Pyongyang Hotel cafe on each visit made my work more colorful and less lonely.

“To know that there is someone there whom we knew from the early days of our work, a constant presence through the past decade, who cared a lot about the people’s potential and believed in a future North Korea that is more open and full of economic opportunities comforted me and gave me strength.

See said he had been impressed by Hay’s passion for North Korea affairs.

“I remember his colleague in Seoul from a distant past when Michael was a high-flying lawyer in the South who greatly respected Michael’s passion for North Korea, but also first mentioned Michael to me as a cautionary tale of the danger of caring too much about the North Korea issue.

“But instead I saw Michael as someone who trailblazed a path and tried to make a difference even when it took so much from him,” See continued.

A memorial event will take place in Seoul to commemorate Hay’s life and work. It will take place on Wednesday (March 4) from 6pm at Route 66 in Itaewon. “Come when you can, go when you must,” the organizer said. Location: ROUTE66 164-1, Itaewon-ro, Yongsan-gu, Seoul.