ROK, DPRK to build logistics park near Sino-DPRK border

The heads of two major companies from the Republic of Korea on Monday announced plans to build a large-scale logistics park in the city of Hunchuan in Northeast China bordering with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, amid hopes of cashing in on economic opening in the DPRK.

Pohang Iron and Steel Company (POSCO) and Hyundai Group will jointly invest $1.74 billion in the park, in the eastern outskirts of Hunchun, just 30 kilometers from the Sino-DPRK border.

POSCO Group President Chung Joon-yang said that the Hunchun POSCO-Hyundai Modern International Logistics Park would take eight years to build and its annual handling capacity would reach 13 million tons.

"POSCO has seen the great potential of China in the past years. And this project is in response to the opening-up policy of the central government. We expect it will serve as a hub that connecting Northeast China with the ROK, Japan and Southeast China," he said.

Hyundai Group Chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun said the group would bring in automobile logistics program to the park.

Hunchun is the only Chinese city that borders both the DPRK and Russia. It has four foreign trade ports with these two countries.

The Chinese government introduced a package of polices in the past three years to further promote the region's opening-up to Northeast Asia. One of the major focuses is to build Hunchun into a corridor connecting Russia and DPRK.

Hunchun will become hot spot because Sino-DPRK economic cooperation is entering a new stage, said Zhang Huizhi, a professor from the Center for Northeast Asian Studies at Jilin University.

"Hunchun must find ways to attract cargo from Jilin and Heilongjiang that used to be transported via railway to Dalian," Zhang said.

One local logistics manager, who declined be named, said that he had mixed feelings about the arrival of POSCO.

"This is good news because it will improve the local business environment. But I hope more Chinese enterprises will come here," he said.

And he noted that the project is a strategic investment whose goal is not short-term profit but the chance of participation in the DPRK's economy in the future.