Home delivery fried chicken -- in North Korea

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea will get its first fried chicken delivery service this month when a South Korean-invested outlet opens for business in the impoverished communist state's capital, an entrepreneur in the South said on Friday.

Choi Won-ho, who runs a 70-store fried chicken franchise in the South, said he would hire about 30 North Koreans to take telephone orders, fry home-grown chicken and hop on scooters to make home deliveries in Pyongyang.

"It's been tough but I'm sure it'll do well," Choi said, as he tried to dispel doubts about the prospects of his investment in a country that can hardly feed its people even when it has a good harvest.

The project has been two years in the making, bogged down by skepticism in the South, suspicion in the North and little government backing at the outset from either side.

The two Koreas remain technically at war more than half a century after the truce that ended the 1950-53 Korean War, but ties have been improving in recent years with growing trade and diplomatic exchanges.

Choi will split the profit with a North Korean state trading firm that he signed with for the outlet near the landmark Arch of Triumph in central Pyongyang, which will also have a 50-table hall for walk-in customers.