Economic Policy
Falling Short: Financial Sanctions and Sino-North Korean Border Trade
Kevin Gray interrogates the usefulness of financial sanctions against the DPRK, highlighting ways in which such sanctions impact the development of the licit and illicit border economies.
Targeting Northeastern Tigers: Xi Jinping’s Anti-Corruption Campaign in Liaoning
The Chinese Communist Party is in a state of tremendous ferment on the corruption issue. Surveying the mainland press for clues from Liaoning, Adam Cathcart assesses the campaign’s impact in a key border province.
The Tumen Triangle Project: Focus on the Rajin-Sonbong Economic and Trade Zone
Sino-NK presents issue four of the Tumen Triangle Documentation Project: Sourcing the Chinese-North Korean Border. Written by Théo Clément, this issue focuses on the Rajin-Sonbong Economic and Trade Zone.
Ex-Minister of Unification Has Gloomy DPRK Bouncing Back
Sino-NK isn’t the only one taking a keen interest in China-DPRK borderland dynamics. More and more researchers are visiting the area to get a personal grasp of what is going on. Former ROK Minister of Unification Lee Jong-seok did so in early August. Christopher Green looks at Lee’s report.
Yongusil 85: Alexander Dukalskis on the Political Impacts of the Shadow Market
The role of the shadow economy in North Korean social change is a contested question, one taken up in a new paper for Europe-Asia Studies. Here, the author summarizes his findings for Sino-NK.
Local and Limited: The Sociopolitical Implications of Segmented Marketization in North Korea
In the fifth part of our contemporary marketization series, Philo Kim takes a sociologist’s lens to the North Korean economy to find out why marketization hasn’t led to large-scale change or transformation.
One More for the Road? New Masterplan for the Sinuiju Special Economic Zone
This week’s closure of the Kaesong Industrial Complex highlights how arduous economic exchange with the DPRK can be. China knows this well. Keen to develop its own northeast, Beijing has been throwing money and heft at the borderland all century long. The latest bilateral step? Théo Clément heads to Dandong to investigate.
Rhetoric vs Reality: 5.24 and North Korean Workers in Dandong
In response to sanctions on South Korean business and Pyongyang’s will to export more labor, the focus of inter-Korean exchange has shifted to the city of Dandong, “another Kaesong Industrial Complex,” according to anthropologist Kang Ju-won. Christopher Green looks at Kang’s recent article on Pressian.
Recent Developments on the SEZ Battlefront: Mubong and Kyongwon
In his second essay for Sino-NK, Théo Clément examines two SEZ developments on the North Korean side of the border, Mubong and Kyongwon. There he finds signs of competing local initiatives, logistical savvy, and reciprocal dialogue with Chinese partners.
