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Wednesday, 10 March 2010
China gets Sea of Japan foothold in North Korea
North Korea has agreed to lease a port on its northeastern coast to Jilin province for 10 years, giving China a directly controlled foothold on the Sea of Japan for the first time in more than a century.
North Korea has agreed to lease a port on its northeastern coast to Jilin province for 10 years, giving China a directly controlled foothold on the Sea of Japan for the first time in more than a century.
Li Longxi, a National People’s Congress deputy and head of the Yanbian Korean Minority Autonomous Prefecture, told China News Service that the deal, for exclusive use of a port in Rajin in the “special city” of Rason, would boost the regional economy and give landlocked Jilin valuable access to trade routes.
China has worked to acquire a foothold in Rajin for several years, after North Korea designated Rason a free-trade zone. A Chinese company secured the right to use Rajin’s No 1 port two years ago and it has since been used to transport coal to southeastern China and Japan.
However, the new deal will give China much more freedom, because it will be able to choose what facilities to build at Rajin’s No 1 port and how to use them. “With the lease, China can develop the port and build infrastructure there as it desires,” said Liu Ming, director of Korean Peninsula studies at the Shanghai Academy of Social Science.
He said Chinese authorities planned to use the port not only for shipping goods and resources but also for tourism. “This port could be used to dock cruise boats. Chinese tourists with a special permit can board cruises to countries like Russia, Japan and South Korea from the Rajin port,” Liu said.
China lost port access to the Sea of Japan, which Koreans call the East Sea, in the 19th century, and the resource-rich and strategically important northeastern provinces of Jilin and Heilongjiang became landlocked. The lease of the port in Rajin is further indication of Beijing’s desire to develop the region into an important trade gateway connecting the northeast Asian economies of Russia, Japan, North Korea and South Korea.
In August, the State Council approved a proposal to turn Jilin’s Tumen River area into an economic development zone. It includes the provincial capital Changchun, the city of Jilin and Yanbian.
It said the new economic zone was significant for China’s long-term strategy, and accelerating its development was a big step in reviving the country’s backward northeast.
Li said leasing the port was part of the overall strategy to develop the Tumen River area and tighten China’s connections with Mongolia, Russia, North Korea and South Korea. At present, most of the goods exported to South Korea and Japan from the northeast have to be shipped through the port city of Dalian in Liaoning. Liu Ming said using the Rajin port would result in significant cost and time savings.
Liu Jiangyong, a professor of international relations at Tsinghua University’s Institute of International Studies, agreed that leasing of the Rajin port would enhance regional economic integration. “This is also a sign that North Korea is planning to further open up, at least for economic co-operation,” he said.
The North Korean embassy in Beijing said yesterday it had no information about the deal. There are five ports in Rajin. Chinese and Russian companies have secured rights to use ports No 3 and No 4.
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China gets Sea of Japan foothold in North Korea
Mandy Zuo and Kristine Kwok
09 March 2010
North Korea has agreed to lease a port on its northeastern coast to Jilin province for 10 years, giving China a directly controlled foothold on the Sea of Japan for the first time in more than a century.
Li Longxi, a National People’s Congress deputy and head of the Yanbian Korean Minority Autonomous Prefecture, told China News Service that the deal, for exclusive use of a port in Rajin in the “special city” of Rason, would boost the regional economy and give landlocked Jilin valuable access to trade routes.
China has worked to acquire a foothold in Rajin for several years, after North Korea designated Rason a free-trade zone. A Chinese company secured the right to use Rajin’s No 1 port two years ago and it has since been used to transport coal to southeastern China and Japan.
However, the new deal will give China much more freedom, because it will be able to choose what facilities to build at Rajin’s No 1 port and how to use them. “With the lease, China can develop the port and build infrastructure there as it desires,” said Liu Ming, director of Korean Peninsula studies at the Shanghai Academy of Social Science.
He said Chinese authorities planned to use the port not only for shipping goods and resources but also for tourism. “This port could be used to dock cruise boats. Chinese tourists with a special permit can board cruises to countries like Russia, Japan and South Korea from the Rajin port,” Liu said.
China lost port access to the Sea of Japan, which Koreans call the East Sea, in the 19th century, and the resource-rich and strategically important northeastern provinces of Jilin and Heilongjiang became landlocked. The lease of the port in Rajin is further indication of Beijing’s desire to develop the region into an important trade gateway connecting the northeast Asian economies of Russia, Japan, North Korea and South Korea.
In August, the State Council approved a proposal to turn Jilin’s Tumen River area into an economic development zone. It includes the provincial capital Changchun, the city of Jilin and Yanbian.
It said the new economic zone was significant for China’s long-term strategy, and accelerating its development was a big step in reviving the country’s backward northeast.
Li said leasing the port was part of the overall strategy to develop the Tumen River area and tighten China’s connections with Mongolia, Russia, North Korea and South Korea. At present, most of the goods exported to South Korea and Japan from the northeast have to be shipped through the port city of Dalian in Liaoning. Liu Ming said using the Rajin port would result in significant cost and time savings.
Liu Jiangyong, a professor of international relations at Tsinghua University’s Institute of International Studies, agreed that leasing of the Rajin port would enhance regional economic integration. “This is also a sign that North Korea is planning to further open up, at least for economic co-operation,” he said.
The North Korean embassy in Beijing said yesterday it had no information about the deal. There are five ports in Rajin. Chinese and Russian companies have secured rights to use ports No 3 and No 4.
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