• 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.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.