Stephan Haggard Cited on China-North Korea Business Cooperation
Speculation about suspension of N.K.-China industrial belt
07/30/2012
Shin Hyon-hee,
The Korea Herald
Speculation is rising over a possible suspension of a joint project between North Korea and China to build an industrial belt along their border.
Citing a source within the North Korean military, Japan’s Asahi Shimbun newspaper on Sunday reported that China declared a moratorium on the Hwanggeumpyeong economic zone development program last month after Pyongyang insisted on maintaining its troops on the border island to safeguard its interests there.
Local farmers reportedly said that a small waterway in the area that had been reclaimed to facilitate construction has been returned to its original state this month.
Other observers said that the North is expected to have demanded Chinese funding for its roads, sewers and other infrastructure, while investors apparently prefer to remain “passive” due to worries about the host country’s volatile policies.
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Stephan Haggard is the director of the Korea-Pacific Program at IR/PS, where he specializes in the Korean economy. In 2011 Haggard published Witness to Transformation: Refugee Insights into North Korea with co-author Marcus Noland, with whom he had previously authored Famine in North Korea: Markets, Aid, and Reform. Dr. Haggard writes the "North Korea: Witness to Transformation" blog at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
