chimx
25th May 2007, 00:15
For decades, the government of North Korea has been described by Westerners as the hertmit kingdom due to the country's longstanding political and economic isolationism. Since the 1960s, the "Great Leader" Kim Il-sung had propagated his own Neo-Confucian values of self-reliance within his nation under the guise of Juche. This originally came about for pragmatic reasons. Having witnessd the birth and escalation of the Cold War, the DPRK had been cutoff from the western world and its potential economic investments. At the same time, Kim was having to cope with the growing Sino-Soviet split, which had left political allegences in question. Juche seemed like an adaquete solution given the circumstances.
Today the circumstances have changed. The Berlin Wall has fallen, the USSR collapsed, and China has become one of the largest capitalist (err, socialist with Chinese characteristics I mean) powers in the world. It is little wonder that with the election of Kim Dae-jung in the late 1990s and the subsequent easing of relations between the ROK and DPRK, there has been talk of taking the North Korean economy into a new direction.
Specifically, I mean the Kaesŏng Industrial Region in North Korea. Work at Kaesŏng began in 2002, but production really took off in 2005. The premise of Kaesŏng is to ease economically ease relations between the ROK and the DPRK by making it a special administrative region which would allow for foreign investment, predominatly from the South. South Korean capitalists have been mobilizing funds and investing in the region. North Korea's economy is in turn assisted by the increase in factory jobs.
When I first heard about Kaesŏng, it immediately reminded me of the Deng Xiaoping economic reforms in China during the late 1970s and early 1980s. To kickstart the Chinese economy, the CCP introduced agrarian reform throughout the 1970s to decollectivize farmland. China took a more overtly capitalst path by 1979 when Xiaoping introduced the infamous Special Economic Zones which would allow for capitalist foreign investment. The first SEZ was Shenzhen, quite near (British) Hong Kong. The hopes were that the proximity to capitalist Hong Kong would encourage foreign investment into the Shenzhen region. Those commies have never been more right! The economy took off and new SEZs popped up throughout the country.
One must note that one of the most obvious parallels between Shenzhen and Kaesŏng is the extremely close proximity of Kaesŏng to Seoul. It is located right on the North/South border. Southern investors are able to build their factories in an economically inferior economy that is a 1-hour car ride away.
This Newsweek article (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9285506/site/newsweek/from/RL.3/) seems to imply that even the DPRK is directly inspired by the success of Shenzhen. (other sources would be appreciated!)
The obvious question I would like to ask is if other people here feel there is a direct connection between Kaesong and Shenzhen. If so, then perhaps a trickier question is the implications of this. While the Chinese Shenzhen experience can be justified as an inevitable byproduct of the political change in China, going from Mao to Xiaoping, this isn't exactly the case in Korea where the leadership seamlessly transferred from father to son. If Korea is grasping for capitalist investment, when did it loose its socialist aspirations (if it ever existed)? Most prominant political analysists aren't shy to say that politics in North Korea has never been abould building socialism, but is about keeping the regime intact. Given this rather pragmatic take on North Korean economics, I'm rather inclined to agree: socialism or capitalism, whatever can save the economy and keep Kim Jung-il in power.
Today the circumstances have changed. The Berlin Wall has fallen, the USSR collapsed, and China has become one of the largest capitalist (err, socialist with Chinese characteristics I mean) powers in the world. It is little wonder that with the election of Kim Dae-jung in the late 1990s and the subsequent easing of relations between the ROK and DPRK, there has been talk of taking the North Korean economy into a new direction.
Specifically, I mean the Kaesŏng Industrial Region in North Korea. Work at Kaesŏng began in 2002, but production really took off in 2005. The premise of Kaesŏng is to ease economically ease relations between the ROK and the DPRK by making it a special administrative region which would allow for foreign investment, predominatly from the South. South Korean capitalists have been mobilizing funds and investing in the region. North Korea's economy is in turn assisted by the increase in factory jobs.
When I first heard about Kaesŏng, it immediately reminded me of the Deng Xiaoping economic reforms in China during the late 1970s and early 1980s. To kickstart the Chinese economy, the CCP introduced agrarian reform throughout the 1970s to decollectivize farmland. China took a more overtly capitalst path by 1979 when Xiaoping introduced the infamous Special Economic Zones which would allow for capitalist foreign investment. The first SEZ was Shenzhen, quite near (British) Hong Kong. The hopes were that the proximity to capitalist Hong Kong would encourage foreign investment into the Shenzhen region. Those commies have never been more right! The economy took off and new SEZs popped up throughout the country.
One must note that one of the most obvious parallels between Shenzhen and Kaesŏng is the extremely close proximity of Kaesŏng to Seoul. It is located right on the North/South border. Southern investors are able to build their factories in an economically inferior economy that is a 1-hour car ride away.
This Newsweek article (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9285506/site/newsweek/from/RL.3/) seems to imply that even the DPRK is directly inspired by the success of Shenzhen. (other sources would be appreciated!)
The obvious question I would like to ask is if other people here feel there is a direct connection between Kaesong and Shenzhen. If so, then perhaps a trickier question is the implications of this. While the Chinese Shenzhen experience can be justified as an inevitable byproduct of the political change in China, going from Mao to Xiaoping, this isn't exactly the case in Korea where the leadership seamlessly transferred from father to son. If Korea is grasping for capitalist investment, when did it loose its socialist aspirations (if it ever existed)? Most prominant political analysists aren't shy to say that politics in North Korea has never been abould building socialism, but is about keeping the regime intact. Given this rather pragmatic take on North Korean economics, I'm rather inclined to agree: socialism or capitalism, whatever can save the economy and keep Kim Jung-il in power.