hankyoreh

vice chairman of the North Korea‘s National Defense Commission

By Park Min-hee, Beijing correspondent

China’s Yatai Group announced plans this week for major investment in the Rason special economic zone, located in the northern tip of North Korea.

Workers’ Party of Korea vice chairman and North Korean second-in-command Jang Song-thaek has been busy in China this week working to drum up economic cooperation and support for his country’s development.

Yatai, a conglomerate based in the city of Changchun in Jilin province, put out a stock market announcement on August 15 saying it had signed a framework agreement with the Rason committee the day before for investment and cooperation toward the building of a construction materials complex in the city.

The complex would be built on a 500,000 square meter plot of land around Ungsang Harbor through investment from the people’s committee and group, with a contract period of 50 years. In its contract with the city, Yatai obtained land use rights, with the city providing free land for the building of an exclusive railroad and highway, the company said.

Yatai would be exclusively in charge of the complex’s development. The area is set to include production lines for cement, concrete, mortar, and other construction materials, which may be part of a bigger plan to develop the city.

China and North Korea previously agreed to develop Rason as a manufacturing, distribution, and tourism area.

Yatai is one of China’s biggest cement manufacturers and has additional ventures in the areas of real estate, finance, and pharmaceuticals. Its decision to contract with Rason has observers asking whether Pyongyang’s desperate calls for Chinese corporate investment are being answered. Analysts said China seems to be taking more active steps to support North Korea after signs that the new Kim Jong-un administration is working to improve its relationship with the outside amid a push for economic reforms, including a full restoration of its ties with Beijing.

At an August 14 meeting in Beijing, a number of different agreements were signed between the North Korean and Chinese central governments, and programs were established at the local level between Rason and Jilin and between North Korea’s Hwanggumpyong area and China’s Liaoning province, putting into place systems for moving forward with the two special districts’ development.

Meanwhile, Jang paid visits to Jilin and Liaoning. While in Jilin on August 14-15, he met with provincial Communist Party secretary Sun Zhengcai to request assistance with Rason’s development. On the evening of August 15, he headed to Shenyang, Liaoning province, where he is believed to have met with local secretary Wang Min to discuss the need for active support on the Hwanggumpyong/Wihwa Island development effort.

He is also known to have done a local inspection of Dandong and other areas of Liaoning on August 16. That same day, vehicles believed to be carrying Jang and his party were spotted traveling under armed guard by police from foreign guest facilities in Shenyang.

Analysts anticipated Jang would be traveling to Beijing on Thursday for a meeting with the central leadership there, possibly including president Hu Jintao.

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