North Korea’s Committee for the Promotion of International Trade is seeking foreign investors willing to provide over $5 million towards a project exploring and analyzing water in the deep sea off the country’s east coast, a notice posted online recently revealed.

A bid for private investors posted on the website of the DPRK’s Ministry of External Economic Relations reported that “scientific research is in progress to develop and use the deep sea water of the East Sea of Korea.”

“International research and analysis,” it continued, had assessed that water found in Kyongsong Bay, North Hamgyong Province contained a mineral content similar to