• 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 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.