By Kim Young-jin
Development of North Korea’s special economic zone Rason is progressing with the construction of an international trade center and a heavier flow of traffic across the China border, reports and visitors said.
Construction of the Rason International Commerce and Trade Center, a joint project with a Chinese firm, had begun in April, North Korean media reported Tuesday. A wholesale market and storage facilities will be finished by October.
The complex is expected to add shops, restaurants and hotels by the same time next year as part of efforts to turn the zone into a manufacturing base and logistics hub. The center will comprise some 40,000 square meters, with a total floor space of 88,000 square meters.
The developments highlight the North’s renewed interest in the zone as it seeks economic development under young leader Kim Jong-un. China covets access to a port there and is encouraging Pyongyang to follow its reform path.
A source who visited the zone last week for an international trade fair said progress was apparent since the same time last year, but that hurdles still remained.
The biggest achievement was the completion of a 48-kilometer road from the China border to Rajin, which is part of the zone, a sign that development is poised to accelerate. The construction of a railway from Russia is nearly complete.
Chinese visitors are now given permits to drive their private cars into the zone, leading to “large lines of cars waiting at the border,” the source said.
The road gives China’s landlocked Jilin and Heilongjiang access to Rajin, the region’s northern-most ice-free port.
Consumption possibilities are also increasing, the source said, including new food stalls at Rajin’s central square.
Even during the trade fair, however, so-called first-class hotels such as the Rajin Hotel did not see full electricity supply. Inflation is also a problem, with rice prices soaring and exchange rates poor.
The reports came after Jang Song-thaek, the uncle of the North Korean leader and a senior policymaker, struck deals with Chinese President Hu Jintao earlier this month to accelerate joint development of Rason and Hwanggumpyong Island, a separate zone.
Analysts said the trip demonstrated Beijing’s commitment to the new regime as well as its drive to push economic development as a stabilizing force in the impoverished country.
The activity at Rason ― designated a special economic zone in 1991 ― is a departure from the past, when it stood somnolent as Pyongyang prioritized its military. Currently its laws offer local officials more autonomy.