China and N Korea launch joint economic zones

Source: Aljazeera

China and North Korea have formally started construction of two joint economic zones near their border, on the North Korean islands of Hwanggumpyong and Wihwa on the west, and the Rajin-Sonbong area on the east. The sides agreed that the economic zones should be developed along "government-guided, enterprise-based and market-oriented" principles, the ministry said.

Present at the event were: Chen Deming, the Chinese commerce minister; Jang Song-thaek, the vice-chairman of North Korea's powerful National Defence Commission and brother-in-law of the North's leader Kim Jong Il; and various officials of the local district councils, it said.

The Hwanggumpyong and Wihwa Islands on the Yalu River near the Chinese city of Dandong, have "favourable conditions for emerging a world trade and investment hub connecting Northeast Asia with Europe and North America," officials said in their congratulatory remarks, KCNA reported.

The joint projects follow Kim's visit to China last month, his third within a year, which was seen a sign of desperation for the reclusive North's ailing economy. Pyongyang has been hit by various UN sanctions, imposed after a May 2009 atomic test, in order to pressure it for a return to six-country nuclear talks. North Korea has been attempting to follow the Chinese economic model, introducing various laws, tax breaks and special economic zones like the Rason, which was first established in 1991 to introduce foreign investment.


Little is known about plans for the development projects and what they will have to offer

Read more: http://english.aljazeera.net//news/asia-pacific/2011/06/201169144353453229.html

...who are among the most repressed on earth. Risk of widespread starvation is very real. I hope this helps bring them out from under the Kim's. The North Korean people deserve much better.

The elites look to China because they want to emulate the formula of economic growth + political stability. The common people emulate it for its higher living standard. It's interesting because 40 years ago, N. Korea was considerably more prosperous than China.

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While I don't like the idea of some western cowboy capitalists exploiting the Asian continent as what happened to China, this can be only good.

Chinese social darwinists (capitalists) are looking for cheaper labor...in North Korea.

Chinese 'labor costs' have indeed risen significantly. It has a population of 1.3 billion (50 times North Korea's 24 million) and an economy that is 250 times larger ($10 trillion to $40 billion).

If the forces that have raised the labor costs in a country with 1.3 billion people are ever unleashed on North Korea (it is safe to say that NK's leaders see this possibility as a threat and will continue to keep it from happening), labor costs in NK would increase more rapidly in NK than they have in China.