hankyoreh

August 14.

By Gil Yun-hyung, Tokyo correspondent

As a possible aftershock of Jang Song-thaek’s execution, North Korea and China’s construction on the joint development project at Hwanggumpyong Island has reportedly been suspended.

Quoting a Chinese official on the China-North Korea Joint Management Committee, which oversees the Hwanggumpyong economic zone, Japan’s Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported on Dec. 19 that the North Korean officials in charge of the project were summoned back to Pyongyang after Jang was purged and that construction stopped around the same time.

Based on these developments, the Chinese official on the committee reported to his superiors that the sudden changes in North Korea would make it hard to achieve their original goal of recruiting companies for the development, the paper reported.

Hwanggumpyong is a 110,000km2 island located at the mouth of the Yalu River, which forms the border between North Korea and China. In June 2011, North Korea declared Wihwa Island (located near Hwanggumpyong Island), a special economic zone, and began joint development with China in August of that year.

The project ran into trouble when the Chinese learned that the North Korean army was stationed on the island. The project was temporarily put on hold until Jang Song-thaek’s visit to China in Aug. 2012. After this, North Korea and China reached an agreement to start full-scale development of the island. Subsequently, the Chinese government invested 80 million RMB (US$13.18 million) in the first phase of construction.

The newspaper reported that the management committee had realized that they could take advantage of North Korea’s cheap labor if they expanded to Hwanggumpyong Island and set a goal of securing investment from 30 Chinese and Taiwanese companies within the year.

But since many companies are concerned about the political situation in North Korea, so far only a few companies have decided to invest in the economic zone. Another factor that has put a damper on investor sentiment was a phrase that appeared in the death sentence issued when the North Korean authorities executed Jang Song-thaek. The verdict said that Jang had dared to engage in treasonous activity by leasing the land at the Rason Special Economic Zone to other countries for a period of fifty years.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]