UPDATE: The Daily NK offers some more information:
North Korea has leased the rights to use Chongjin port to a Chinese firm, according to a Yonhap report released yesterday.
The report, citing an anonymous government official from Tumen in China’s far northeast, across the Tumen River from Namyang in North Hamkyung Province, said that the usage rights have been sold to a “Chinese state company, Yanbian Haihua Import-Export Trade Company.”
He predicted, “Yanbian Haihua Import-Export Trade Company will start shipping between Chongjin port and Busan by container ship in September, and will start shipments to southern regions of China soon.”
The anonymous official also revealed that North Korea has agreed to allow the Chinese company to use the railroad between Tumen and Chongjin as part of the deal. The deal, the official said, will “facilitate trade from Tumen,” and added that the Chinese company which inked it is planning to use it to fulfill shipping contracts with three other Chinese companies.
The Chinese company is reportedly investing 10 million Yuan ($1.48 million approx.) in shipping cranes and other construction at Chongjin, and is having 150 freight cars produced to add to 50 already sent.
The deal follows a similar one for the No. 1 dock at Rasun port, some 70km north of Chongjin. That deal, made after the visit to Pyongyang of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in October last year, gave the rights to the dock to another Chinese company, Chuangli Group.
ORIGINAL POST: According to Yonhap:
China has acquired the rights to use another one of North Korea’s northeastern ports, signaling deepening economic ties between the ideological allies, a Chinese official said Thursday.
China has used the North Korean port of Rajin in North Hamgyong Province for commercial trade since 2008. An official at the Tumen city government in northeast China said that a Chinese state company has now also obtained the rights to use the port of Chongjin, about 70 kilometers south of Rajin.
South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles North Korea affairs, said it could not immediately confirm the comments by the Chinese official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Since North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s visit to Beijing earlier this year, the two countries have been strengthening their economic cooperation. China is the foremost ally of the cash-strapped North, which is under deepening sanctions for its nuclear testing.
The Chinese official also said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency that North Korea and China have also agreed to allow Chinese companies to use North Korea’s railways from Tumen to Chonjin.
The series of agreements would “facilitate trade from Tumen,” the official said, adding the Chinese company that struck the deal to use the port of Chongjin will use it to carry out shipping agreements with three Chinese companies.
Here is a map of the Rajin port showing which pier the Chinese are leasing.
Read the full story here:
China allowed to use another N. Korean port: official
Yonhap
7/22/2010
Has the port lease brought any development to Rason? I would presume that a contingent of Chinese personnel would require infrastructure like restaurants, hotels, entertainment facilities, etc. Is there any sign of this?
may be not, because the lease agreement is to be rescinded anytime by north korea, if they fell that chinese are demanding too much. May be chinese solving food and accommodation inside Rason town which you will not see on a satellite photo.
Might go some way to explaining why Rason is once again politicall separated from the rest of North Hamgyŏng Province?