The Libyan Embassy in Seoul promised on Friday its government would ensure the safety of Koreans in the North African country in the wake of violent anti-U.S. protests.

“The government will take all necessary measures to ensure the safety and protection of Korean businessmen, diplomats and companies operating in Libya,” the embassy told The Korea Herald.

The assurances came after angry protesters attacked the U.S. consulate in Benghazi killing four American diplomats, including the country’s top envoy there, and razed the building.

There are about 200 Korean nationals living in Libya, nearly all of whom are business and government officials.

Korea’s investment and commercial presence in Libya has shot up since the collapse of the Gadhafi regime in October 2011, as Asia’s fourth-largest economy eyes massive construction contracts after nearly a year of brutal fighting ravaged the North African country.

Two-way trade before the Arab Spring in 2011 amounted to about $2 billion annually, but it nosedived in 2011 to about $400 million.

Korean investment nerves were frayed after during the Libyan uprising last year, when rioters stormed a Korean construction site near Tripoli on Feb. 21, 2011, seriously wounding two Bangladeshi workers. Additionally, some 1,400 workers working on 300 different building sites were evacuated at the time.

So, Libyan assurances specifically toward Korean government and business officials may sooth jittery investment nerves as billions of dollars in contracts are on the line.

The Korea Trade-Promotion Agency recently speculated that Korea could corner about $40 billion of the some $120 billion available for the construction of housing, hotels and power plants there. This would be a boon for companies like Daewoo Engineering & Construction and Hyundai Engineering & Construction, household names in the region.

KOTRA said it believes that the energy and construction sectors will become a magnet for post-Gaddafi Libya’s Korean interests.

Korean construction companies have long had global brand recognition, whether for Samsung C&T’s world’s tallest building the Burj Khalifa, which opened in Dubai in 2009, or the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur and Taipei 101 in Taiwan, but Korean construction name brands have particular resonance in the Arab world.

By Philip Iglauer (ephilip2011@heraldcorp)