In this Thursday, Oct. 25, 2018 photo, senior researcher with the Economic Institute of the North's Academy of Social Sciences Ri Ki Song gestures during his interview with the Associated Press in Pyongyang, North Korea. / AP

PYONGYANG, North Korea ― North Korea is exploring a grand plan to become a regional transportation hub, inspired in part by the successes of Singapore and Switzerland, and would be open to joining world financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund if current member states give up their ''hostile'' policies toward it, a senior government economist has told The Associated Press.

Ri Ki Song, a senior researcher with the Economic Institute of the North's Academy of Social Sciences, said that although sanctions aimed at getting his country to abandon its nuclear and missile programs have increased over the past year, the country's economy has maintained steady growth _ with its GDP increasing from $24.998 billion in 2013 to $29.595 billion in 2016 and $30.704 billion in 2017.

Some outside experts dispute the North's statistics. An estimate released in July by South Korea's central bank, for example, had the North's GDP decreasing 3.5 percent in 2017, which would be its biggest contraction since the famine years of the late 1990s.

Ri, who spoke with The Associated Press in Pyongyang last week, said the growth reflected how sanctions have resulted in some parts of the economy becoming more efficient and self-reliant.

The North has developed a kind of fertilizer that uses domestically produced coal instead of imported oil products, and made improvements in the method of producing steel, he said. He did not mention the flowering of capitalist-style markets, which are still officially somewhat frowned upon but which many observers suspect is a major factor if the economy is indeed growing.