As the guillotine of debt contagion hangs over Europe, financial pressures in Asia have led an unexpected player to make a strategic shift. After months of escalating tensions with South Korea have shuttered its opportunities for expanded trade southwards, Pyongyang has turned north, launching several high-profile initiatives to secure Chinese and Russian participation in new trade and investment schemes, and firm up the two countries’ support for Kim Jong Il’s succession plans.
With Pyongyang fast-tracking these projects at the highest levels, it’s now a serious question whether this marks the beginning of the end for North Korea’s economic isolation and a major step towards the creation of a transnational northeast shipping hub with the potential to rival the export power of the Yangtze Delta region. Joining host Jeremy Goldkorn to talk about what this means for China watchers are three of the smartest observers of the East Asian security situation today: Edward Wong from The New York Times, Alexa Olesen from the Associated Press, and Stephanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt from the International Crisis Group. With all three freshly back from a fact-finding mission to North Korea, join us on Sinica today for some candid discussion about what is happening on the ground, along with some scintillating gossip on the latest tourist opportunity for the Wenzhou investment class: luxury boat cruises along the North Korean coast.
Recommendations
- “A North Korean Resort Seeks to Draw Foreigners,” Edward Wong, The New York Times, September 3, 2011
- “China and Inter-Korean Clashes in the Yellow Sea,” Asia Report N°200, International Crisis Group, January 27, 2011
- “China Called On as Lender of Last Resort as Italy Faces Deepening Crisis,” Shamim Adam and Lorenzo Totaro, Bloomberg, September 13, 2011
- “Despite Reports, China’s North Korea Policy Stays the Same,” Stephanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt, The Huffington Post, January 21, 2011
- Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China, Paul French (Penguin Books, 2012)
- “North Korean Cruise Seeks Tourists, 8 to a Room,” Edward Wong, The New York Times, September 13, 2011
- “Rui Chenggang to Gary Locke: I hear you flew here coach. Is that a reminder that U.S. owes China money?,” Kenneth Tan, Shanghaiist, September 14, 2011
- “Shades of Red: China’s Debate Over North Korea,” International Crisis Group, November 2, 2009
- “Strangers at Home: North Koreans in the South,” Asia Report N°208, International Crisis Group, July 14, 2011
- “North Korea’s First Cruise,” Edward Wong, The New York Times, September 13, 2011
- “Wen Says World Must Get ‘Houses in Order,’ Not Rely on China,” Bloomberg News, September 14, 2011
- “Who Shapes China’s North Korea Policy?,” Stephanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt, The Korea Times, May 19, 2011