Economic Policy
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.