• 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.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.675-687
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• 2014

After colonization by the Japanese Empire, Seoul had experienced structural changes during the 1920s. As the number of residents increased dramatically, the land price of Seoul began to skyrocket, bringing about a new type of real estate developers. They invented a new type of hanok, which is very small compared to a traditional hanok, by dividing a large parcel of land into several small pieces. These hanoks were built by Korean developers who ran their business like modern developers today-acquiring large piece of land, developing and selling the property, and even providing financing schemes to buyers in some cases. However, the Korean developers mainly provided housing to the poor Koreans suffering from housing shortage. At the time, many Koreans worried that the City of Seoul would turn into a Japanese city, since the Japanese were trying to expand their real estate development to the north of Cheonggyecheon. However, their development plans have been neglected, as a result of the development activity of the Korean Jerry-builders in the north. The purpose of this paper is to reevaluate the role of the Korean developers in real estate development during the colonization period, especially in the 1920s.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.267-286
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• 2017

The main purpose of this paper is to identify the spatiality of North Korea and China border regions through investigating the exceptional characteristics of the regions with the concept of positionality, which allows us to realize the relative position between subject and object. Border regions could be identified appropriately by considering the concept of switching positionality, as it is a kind of multiple space in which its sudden closure and opening should be configured in accordance with geopolitical and geoeconomic changes centering around border line. The main arguments of this research concerned with border regions with the concept of switching positionality are fallen into three. Firstly, changes in border regions should be analyzed by investigating more broader contexts and conjunctural perspectives, and even an internal condition stemmed from locality. Secondly, trajectories of border regions could be analyzed by the assemblages of various powers. Finally, the positionality of economic actors should be examined by identifying dynamic relations between geoeconomics and geopolitics. In particular, the concept of positionality has led to a number of insights into discussions on time-space, and spatiality in relational-dialectical, socio-spatial, and power-topological perspectives. Based upon this concept of positionality, the research has identified exceptional characteristics in North Korea and China border regions. It argues that the exceptionality of the region has stemmed from the intersection between the unstability of geopolitical security and various geoeconomic benefits.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.312-323
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• 2003

This writer absolutely agrees with the government that regional disequilibrium is severe enough to consider moving the administrative capital. Pursuing this course solely to establish a balanced development, however, is not a convincing enough reason. The capital city is directly related to not only the social and economic situation but, much more importantly, to the domestic political situation as well. In the mid-1970s, the proposal by the Third Republic to move the capital city temporarily was based completely on security reasons. At e time, the then opposition leader Kim, Dae-jung said that establishing a safe distance from the demilitarized zone(DMZ) reflected a typically military decision. His view was that retaining the capital city close to the DMZ would show more consideration for the will of the people to defend their own country. In fact, independent Pakistan moved its capital city from Karachi to Islamabad, situated dose to Kashmir the subject of hot territorial dispute with India. It is regrettable that no consideration has been given to the urgent political situation in the Korean peninsula, which is presently enveloped in a dense nuclear fog. As a person requires health to pursue his/her dream, a country must have security to implement a balanced territorial development. According to current urban theories, the fate of a country depends on its major cities. A negligently guarded capital city runs the risk of becoming hostage and bringing ruin to the whole country. In this vein, North Koreas undoubted main target of attack in the armed communist reunification of Korea is Seoul. For the preservation of our state, therefore, it is only right that Seoul must be shielded to prevent becoming hostage to North Korea. The location of the US Armed Forces to the north of the capital city is based on the judgment that defense of Seoul is of absolute importance. At the same time, regardless of their different standpoints, South and North Korea agree that division of the Korean people into two separate countries is abnormal. Reunification, which so far has defied all predictions, may be realized earlier than anyone expects. The day of reunification seems to be the best day for the relocation of the capital city. Building a proper capital city would take at least twenty years, and a capital city cannot be dragged from one place to another. On the day of a free and democratic reunification, a national agreement will be reached naturally to find a nationally symbolic city as in Brazil or Australia. Even if security does not pose a problem, the governments way of thinking would not greatly contribute to the balanced development of the country. The Chungcheon region, which is earmarked as the new location of the capital city, has been the greatest beneficiary of its proximity to the capital region. Not being a disadvantaged region, locating the capital city there would not help alleviate regional disparity. If it is absolutely necessary to find a candidate region at present, considering security, balanced regional development and post-reunification scenario of the future, Cheolwon area located in the middle of the Korean peninsula may be a plausible choice. Even if the transfer of capital is delayed in consideration of the present political conflict between the South and the North Koreas, there is a definite shortcut to realizing a balanced regional development. It can be found not in the geographical dispersal of the central government, but in the decentralization of power to the provinces. If the government has surplus money to build a new symbolic capital city, it is only right that it should improve, for instance, the quality of drinking water which now everyone eschews, and to help the regional subway authority whose chronic deficit state resoled in a recent disastrous accident. And it is proper to time the transfer of capital city to coincide with that of the reunification of Korea whenever Providence intends.