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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Norks Try to Lure Foreigners to 'Investment Zones' |
| 2010-03-21 |
| In the wake of a disastrous currency reform, North Korea seems desperate to draw international investments in efforts to resolve its deteriorating economy and food shortage. There are moves to open the Rajin-Sonbong Economic Special Zone to the outside again and develop Wihwa and Bidan islands near Sinuiju jointly with China. The North has been increasingly frantic in calls on South Korea to resume package tours to the Mt. Kumgang resort and increase wages for North Korean workers at the joint Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex. There are four so-called "special economic zones" -- Rajin-Sonbong, Sinuiju, Mt. Kumgang, and Kaesong -- which the North either tried to develop in the past or is currently operating. They are on the eastern, western, southern, and northern tips of the North Korean territory. They are rigorously isolated from ordinary North Korean life. The Rajin-Sonbong zone is ringed by a high-voltage security fence some 89 km in radius. In the Mt. Kumgang resort, a South Korean tourist who had strayed a little beyond the fence from the permitted area was shot dead by a soldier in 2008. Ryu Dong-ryeol, a researcher at the Police Science Institute, argued that the North's recent moves to open up are still within that tactic. The North has leased a port in the Rajin-Sonbong zone to China and Russia, but has revised the special zone law to the effect that the North's draconian laws apply strictly to foreigners as well. In case of the Sinuiju special zone, the Stalinist country aims to develop Wihwa and Bidan islands in the Apnok (or Yalu) River because they are easy to isolate. A South Korean government official said, "The North could earn a considerable amount of hard currency without having to take big risks if package tours to Mt. Kumgang resume or wages for workers at the Kaesong industrial park increase." The North earned US$500 million from the Mt. Kumgang tourism project over the past decade, and $30 million to $40 million per year from the Kaesong project. But the policy of such restricted opening-up is likely doomed to failure. Prof. Cho Young-ki of Korea University said that there is a limit to the supply of cheap labor which would attract foreign firms, since the special zones are remote and underpopulated. "In addition, the infrastructure, including electric power and port facilities, is poor there. It seems that the North is still cherishing the illusion that foreign investment will pour in if it opens its doors even a little," he added. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #4 Phil_b is right. The other option is a market economy, property rights and Heaven help 'em, democracy. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2010-03-21 12:31 |
| #3 too funny! |
| Posted by: newc 2010-03-21 07:31 |
| #2 I can't help but think the NORKS best hard currency option is to invite in the Thai gangsters who run the Nana Plaza and similar, then lay on cheap flights from Britain, Germany, etc for sex tourists. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2010-03-21 05:10 |
| #1 Don't let go of your stranglehold now unless you want to perpetuate their behavior. |
| Posted by: gorb 2010-03-21 02:59 |