Silent Partners: Chinese Joint Ventures in North Korea - US-Korea ...

Silent Partners: Chinese Joint Ventures in North Korea Transcript 27
going into Jilin, this Chungji Two pilot project, of course the long-term efforts around the
Greater Tumen Initiative, and all the investment that China is putting into this area in the hope
that North Korea will open up and I felt that that’s actually a very significant part of the report,
it’s not just the joint ventures but also just all the investment China’s putting into there is
equally… says an awful lot about the way China looks at North Korea. But I had two questions
related to that: One is, you chronicle the whole history of efforts to try to leverage North Korea
to help to revitalize the Northeast of China and yet you keep saying although there were reports
of this deal signed, that deal signed, MOU, yet nothing’s happened. Wondered if you heard from
any of your interlocutors why nothing’s happened from the North Korean side, what kinds of
reasons are the North Koreans advancing for why none of these deals ever comes to anything
That’s my first question. The second question is, I’m just wondering in terms of long-term
viability of all these projects in Jilin, the Chungji Two Project and so on, how much is the
viability of this based on the idea that North Korea is going to reform and open up Is there, does
that area have anything intrinsically attractive that will make it successful, the revitalization of
that area successful, if North Korea doesn’t open up Those are my two questions, thanks.
Drew Thompson: Thank you. Those are great questions. It’s hard to answer, but I’ll take a stab.
Going back and looking at how often and how hard China has tried to get access to Rajin Port
and how they have just signed MOU after MOU and yet nothing seems to happen with this
Taedong Bank Development Group, the 10 billion dollar investment, I was discussing that with
Professor Freeman. A year ago we had some scholars from Jilin and Liaoning here in
Washington and I was talking to them, I said, “Come on, how’s this different Taking a real
realist look at all these failed investments, how is this 10 billion dollars going to work What’s
going to keep the North Koreans from just stealing it all” And again, it’s a predatory
environment in North Korea. I think there was a Wikileaks, one of the cables that detailed some
of the shenanigans that go on, I think it’s probably 10 times worse than what gets leaked in the
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