Lawyer Michael Hay, who set up North Korea’s first and only foreign law firm, has died in Seoul aged 58, according to the website NK News.

Hay, a British-French national, established Hay, Kalb & Associates in Pyongyang in 2004. The firm specialised in providing advice to foreign entities with business interests in North Korea.

While its unique position gained the firm international media attention, in 2016 it suspended operations, after “thorough deliberation and an examination of the continuing deterioration of inter-regional relations pertaining to the Korean peninsula,” Reuters quoted Hay as saying.

Majority of Hay’s clients were foreign investors who had struggled with sanctions placed on North Korea, Reuters reported.

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