North Korea is seeking international investors to back a floating casino operation just as US legislators vow to clamp down on the regime’s online gambling operations.

On Thursday, South Korean media reported that a North Korean website was inviting foreign investors to bet on a proposed cruise ship venture that would ferry customers from the port of Kosong to Russia’s far east and other southeast Asian destinations. The ship would feature “various amenities” including “a casino business.”

North Korea used to have such a casino cruise business, but the South Korean company that operated the 30k-tonne ferry halted operations after a North Korean soldier killed a South Korean tourist visiting North Korea’s Mr. Kumgang special international tourism zone in 2008.

North Korea says investors should be willing to plunge between US$10m and $20m into the cruise business over the next decade. To sweeten its pitch, North Korea says the business will be “guaranteed favorable conditions for economic activities.”