• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.369-387
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• 2017

This research derived sum of light (SOL) for Liaoning and Dandong, China, from DMSP OLS satellite images acquired at nighttime during 1992 to 2012 and investigated its potential association with economic status. The SOLs of Liaoning were found to be continuously increasing and higher than those of averages for the other provinces across the time period. The temporal pattern of SOLs would be interpreted to well reflect the economic status of this region based on real growth rate and average wage per capita. Nevertheless, the SOLs of Dandong were lower than the average of the other prefecture-level cities, which indicated the economic status of this city in China. Meanwhile, the average annual growth rate of SOLs for Dandong turned out to be increase for 1998~2007, compared with the previous years, and temporal patterns in the trade amount between North Korea and China and the export amount of North Korea to China were similar to those of SOLs in the same time period. The political association between South and North Koreas was improved with 'Sunshine Policy' during 1997~2007. Taking it into account, SOL is expected to be valuable spatial proxy index that could explain the geopolitcal and geoeconomic aspects of Dandong.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.329-352
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• 2017

Since the late 2000s Korean foreign direct investors in North Korea and China border regions have gone through the closure of outward processing trade(OPT) networks and changes in their location due to UN security council resolution and Korean independent sanctions against North Korea's nuclear and missile tests. However, the introduction of new Chinese OPT policy has led to the invigoration of domestic market-based OPT networks towards North Korea. The main aim of this paper is to identify the exceptional characteristics of Dandong in Liaoning province, a North Korea and China border region by analyzing OPT networks towards North Korea. Fundamentally the establishment of OPT networks towards North Korea is likely to be based on the utilization of a plenty of low wages in North Korea. The main reasons for this are fallen into two perspectives: geo-economics and geo-politics. The first perspective is geo-economics centering on the consolidation of economic exchange between North Korea and China, and North Korean economic development. For example, the introduction of Chinese OPT in border region has enabled Chinese local firms based on domestic market to access a plenty of low wage in North Korea in formal and institutional contexts. The second is geo-politics for the stability of North Korean regime based on the means of geo-economics. As the invigoration of domestic market-based OPT networks might make North Korea possible promoting foreign money earning, it enable North Korea to be sustainable as a buffering region between capitalist and socialist regime for China. It shows Chinese geo-strategic attempts to deal with the economic and regime stability of North Korean as a buffering state. In other words, OPT networks in North Korea should be concerned with the discourse practice of geo-economics and geo-politics which might lead to various and contingent spatial economies in border region. As a consequence, North Korea and China border regions could defined as a space in which is applicable to exceptional institutions and policies, and an exploitative space in which create surplus and rents by utilizing a plenty of low wages in North Korea through OPT networks.