North Korea accepts invite to World Economic Forum

The World Economic Forum is likely to enrage US participants this year with its controversial decision to invite a government delegation from North Korea.

The annual business, political and academic confab in the Swiss mountain resort town of Davos, which is aimed at improving the state of the world, draws bold-faced names like billionaire investor George Soros, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein and top tech bosses from Microsoft’s Satya Nadella and Google’s Eric Schmidt.

The rogue nation’s acceptance of the WEF invite — the first extended in 18 years — comes just a year after Pyongyang was accused of working with hackers to wreak havoc inside Tokyo-headquartered Sony.

Sony Pictures was effectively held to ransom over its plans to release “The Interview,” a movie about the assassination of North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un.

The hackers, who called themselves The Guardians of Peace, wanted the movie dumped and posted the social security numbers of Sony staff and also shared with Wikileaks the emails of top executives at the electronics and entertainment conglomerate.

In addition, threats were made by the hackers against people intending to see the movie, leading Sony to pull the Seth Rogen/James Franco comedy from theaters after theater owners declined to show it.

That decision prompted a huge debate about freedom of speech and international diplomacy. Sony’s decision to yank the movie earned a rebuke from Pres. Obama.

The movie was released via the web, with Google and Microsoft the first to offer it.

The biggest corporate hack of the decade has sent US companies scrambling to protect themselves against similar incursions.

While the North Korean invite may stir some ill will, the move by the WEF, sources close to the organization told The Post, was aimed at trying to encourage countries on the fringes of society to be part of the conversation about issues affecting the globe.

In the past, invitations have been extended to Iran and Myanmar in the same spirit, the sources said.

Reports suggest the North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Su-yong will attend the confab — although it’s also possible that Kim will decide to show.