China Gazers the world over are well-acquainted with the “Deng miracle” which resulted in the PRC’s SEZs (Special Economic Zones) during the late 1970s Reform and Opening Period. Shenzhen, formerly a gated community, was the first of more than half a dozen prominent eastern seaboard havens for industry and market exploitation and experimentation which eventually became the de facto model for Chinese heavy industrialization along the nation’s entire right coast.

Here’s where I’m going with this idea…

China’s more than three decades of experience with the “port city as innovation enclave” concept should be next launched inside North Korea, as Kim Jong il hands off the conch shell to his youngest son Kim Jong-un (or eun). April 12th, for those who don’t know, marks the Great Leader’s birthday (Kim the Father, that is), and rumors are positively swirling in the Korean blogosphere boasting how it will also serve as Jong-un’s coming-out party, when his poster will finally be rolled out across the entire DPRK and to the rest of the world, adorning murals, newspapers, and subway station marquees.

Make sure to keep your eyes peeled over the coming month in North Korea which will likely herald the announcement of more robust Chinese investment in DPRK, with enhancements to those operations already underway at North Korea’s far northeastern Rajin port (pictured above), which is strategically situated at the three-way intersection of the Chinese, Russian, and North Korean borders. Look for the advent of more Chinese-style “SEZ” activity to take place in the zone.

We’ve already spoken at this blog about Hyundai Asun’s Kumgang (Diamond Mountain) tourist facility just across the border from the 38th parallel. To this here would-be blogger’s mind, Kumgang would make for an excellent SEZ-type experimentation area should the South Koreans persist in upholding their almost 2-year ban forbidding ROK citizens from visiting the area when a ROK tourist was shot after “walking into [the] no man’s land” surrounding the tourist enclave. There are millions of dollars at stake in the offing, physical plant and facilities which might be put to better use in delivering more predictable hard currency flows to the Kim Farm. Eminently more so than being at the capricious mercy of South Korean officialdom. A good suggestion making the rounds of late is to flood the entire area with Yanbian Korean-Chinese citizens while establishing the sorts of factories which presently exist in China’s Guangdong and Zheijiang provinces. Get things rolling over there, then gradually introduce the kinds of attractions and mom-and-pop shops (egs. cell phone rental and sales kiosks, low-impact consumer purchases, clothing shops, other mixed retail) which one might easily find in a town like Wenzhou.

These proposed Korean SEZs might ideally straddle the northern ROK border, or be situated far enough away from North Korea’s population centers to placate the Kim regime’s paranoia of suddenly losing its tight control over 23 million mostly clueless citizens as foreign ideas surge into the hermit state. Kim’s son, Jong-un, will thereby succeed in keeping a firm grip on North Korea’s shaky tiller while introducing much-needed structural and economic reforms. Win-win, baby! He comes off looking like something of a reformer while avoiding appearing as patsy stooge to his domestic constituents, always a high consideration for the Kim cabal.

Here are several other benefits to be immediately gained by the introduction of Chinese-style SEZs in North Korea:

• the Chinese can be invited to show the way in the development of these new zones. They’ve got the experience, have evened out the steep learning curve, and will intimately know what works and what doesn’t. North Korea’s population size is small enough to keep this manageable.
• immigrants and newcomers needed to work these zones can be limited to the confines of the zones (the “Dubai” or Emirate model), bolstering the zones’ manpower in these SEZs without spillover into North Korea’s generation population.
• the Chinese can insinuate themselves into North Korea’s affairs in such as way as to avoid offending the DPRK’s hypersensitive “Korean” ethnic sensibilities, nor by appearing to want to commandeer Korea’s economy.

Let’s just put it this way: it’s going to be a summer to remember in Kim’s Paradise. Crack open a beer, pull up a chair, and watch the sparks fly.

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