At least the South Koreans won’t feel picked on.
The Dong-A Ilbo, quoting a Chinese businessman active in North Korea’s Rajin-Sonbong Special Economic Zone, reports that North Korea demanded in October that Chinese leave the zone by the end of November.
It is uncomfirmed whether the order was for all Chinese based in Rajin-Sonbong. Some are claiming that the North demanded 90% of the resident Chinese businessmen to leave the area.
Someone familiar with news from the North told the Dong-A, however, that the Chinese have yet to begin leaving, and instead are putting out feelers as to why the North made the request. The North, for its part, has not deported any of the businessmen. Some 250 Chinese companies are active in the zone.
About the move, experts are divided. Some think the North is closing down its open economic zones in order to preserve the regime, while others think they are simply stopping work in Rajin-Sonbong in order to redevelop it as an industrial zone. Till now, investment in Rajin-Sonbong has focused on the entertainment sector — see the shenanigans here (from 2004).
A Rajin-Sonbong Special Economic Zone official in China denied knowledge of the departure order, while the South Korean embassy had never heard of it.
Marmot’s Note: Is it true? Beats me. It’s North Korea, so I suppose it could be. But then again, it’s the Dong-A Ilbo, so I suppose it could be bullshit.
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On the one hand, it would sort-of contradict reports that the NK regime is trying to refocus on drawing in Chinese investment, albeit at Sinuiju instead of Rajin.
It’s not quite so that Chinese investment in that area was focused on “entertainment.” Back in 2005, the Chinese bought an exclusive 50-year lease on the Rajin port and some nearby land. As part of the deal, the Chinese were supposed to build a road back to the Motherland and refurbish the port, and presto, China’s northeastern rust belt would no longer be landlocked. This was to have been a project of great economic significance for both China and North Korea.
If the report is true, it would prove that Chinese are no more immune to the same old I-can-change bait and switch than South Korea politicians, … or American diplomats.
If this is true, this is important because it would mean the Chinese have really reached past the comfort-zone in North Korea and the NK leadership is resisting. The Chinese Yuan has already supplanted the NK Won as currency in the northern reaches so I would expect the NK leadership to worry more and more about autonomy otherwise they might end up in a mental hospital.
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