hankyoreh

The road to Rajin was rough. I was visiting the site of the Rajin-Khasan project with the South Korean Presidential Committee on Northern Economic Cooperation. If we’d flown directly through North Korean airspace, we could have touched down at Orang Airport, in Chongjin, and been there in three hours. Instead, the trip required a stopover in Russia and comprised 14 hours of travel, excluding waiting and layover time. That was enough to get personally acquainted with the North Korean transportation system, which Kim Jong-un himself acknowledged was uncomfortable, inadequate and embarrassing.

A special train provided by Russian Railways with one passenger car attached departed from Vladivostok Station. It was six hours later that our train arrived at Khasan Station, on the Russian border with North Korea. The train had traveled for about 318km at a speed of 50kph. I was surprised to find a section of 50kph track in Russia, the country whose railroad expertise was symbolized by the Trans-Siberian Railway, but at the same time I also found myself thinking that these conditions could offer new business opportunities for South Korean companies.

The immigration, customs and quarantine check at the quiet train station on the Russian border was over quickly, in just 30 minutes. This stood in sharp contrast to the four-hour wait for immigration between Sinuiju in North Korea and Dandong Station in China. Departing from Khasan Station, we passed through the Fangchuan area where the borders of North Korea, Russia and China coincide. I was so focused on watching the scenery around me that I barely noticed we were pulling into Tumangang Station on the North Korean side of the border.

After quickly completing border control procedures at Tumangang Station, we were driven to Rajin. The road to Rajin reminded me of the first highways that were built in South Korea long ago. The dull rattle of the vehicle and the dust seeping through the cracks in the windows harmonized curiously with the miles of carefully tended farmland outside the windows. It was not until we entered Rason (a municipality that combines Rajin and Sonbong) that the paved road began and we saw the sprawling Victory Chemical Plant alongside the road, something we had only ever seen before in photographs.

Rason looked different from the border area, and again and again I could hardly believe my eyes. Sonbong Power Plant was in normal operation, which meant there were no signs of power shortages in the city. Neon signs were glaring on stores along the streets, while the troubling slogans praising nuclear weapons and bashing the US were nowhere to be seen, either. We frequently noticed taxis zooming along with passengers in tow and five or six taxis waiting for passengers next to plazas.

Gas stations that should have had long lines because of restrictions on oil imports looked placid, and there were quite a few tourists who had driven here from China. The North Koreans told us that about 3,000 foreigners were residing in Rason and that over 30,000 Chinese tourists visited the city every year. The unofficial private markets called jangmadang were crowded with hundreds of people, and customers were frequently filing into banks. I even tried buying some cigarettes and food at a street stall. I paid in dollars and was given Chinese yuan in change, and I had no complaints about the food I bought.

Why this focus on Rajin?

When the Presidential Committee on Northern Economic Cooperation announced its main objectives and its strategy for the New Northern Policy in June, one of these main objectives was “cross-border minilateral cooperation.” The idea is that cross-border minilateral cooperation projects can promote economic cooperation between countries in the region and institute a virtuous cycle that leads to peace. The major area for such projects is Rajin, and one of the projects in question is the Rajin-Khasan logistic project.

Ahn Byung-min

The Rajin-Khasan logistic project is based on the simple idea that Russian cargo, and coal in particular, could be imported to South Korea via the port of Rajin. Expanding the scope of participation and diversifying the cargo being handled have frequently been proposed as future goals. Through our visit to Rajin, we were able to confirm that the city is more than satisfactory in terms of its facilities, including the railroads, the port and the power supply. However, there is room for improvement at the North Korean and Russian joint venture, which has a weak grasp of contemporary management techniques in the field of logistics. It’s in this respect that South Korea’s participation appears necessary.

Despite the challenges of making progress on denuclearization and lifting the sanctions, I saw the potential of cross-border minilateral cooperation. That confidence remains with me despite the scorching heat.

By Ahn Byung-min, senior researcher at the Korea Transport Institute, member of the Presidential Committee on Northern Economic Cooperation