Russia plans to build an “industrial and trade park” to showcase goods from North Korea and China, according to a government official in charge of a region along the DPRK border.
Primorsky Krai governor Oleg Kozhemyako announced the scheme on Sunday during a visit to China’s Yanbian-Korean Autonomous Prefecture, also near North Korea.
“There are plans to create a commercial and industrial park featuring products from Russia, China and North Korea in Primorsky Krai,” according to a press release from the Primorsky Krai government, citing Kozhemyako.
The trade zone “will give momentum to the development of trilateral international cooperation,” the regional head added, expressing confidence that “the DPRK will actively join these processes” as soon as it removes COVID-19-related restrictions.
A Primorsky Krai spokesperson told NK News that the project has not been finalized and is still “in the works,” without providing additional information.
Kozhemyako suggested that North Korea’s “vast labor resources” could be deployed for this project but did not elaborate.
U.N. Security Council Resolution 2397, which was adopted in 2017 and entered into force shortly before the COVID-19 outbreak in 2019, bans North Koreans from working overseas in an attempt to cut off funding for Pyongyang’s nuclear and weapons programs.
In April, Kozhemyako called on Russian leader Vladimir Putin to ramp up economic investment and development in his region, explicitly emphasizing the need to improve the outdated Soviet-era transport infrastructure.
Russia shares a 10-mile (17-km) border with North Korea, and Primorksky Krai serves as a critical logistical juncture connecting the two countries, with a railroad bridge across the Tumangang River. Russia has used the border crossing to deliver wheat, corn and other staples to the DPRK as the country faces starvation amid severe shortages.
Cross-border trade between North Korea and Russia resumed in Nov. 2022 with a rail shipment of 30 horses, the first reported shipment between the two sides in nearly three years due to the DPRK’s strict COVID-19 border controls.
During his recent visit to China, governor Kozhemyako cited contemporary work on “the modernization of border crossings” and “accelerated development” in his jurisdiction.
Primorsky Krai’s favorable geography “will increase trade flow, allow our peoples to get acquainted with cultural and sports programs and increase mutually beneficial economic cooperation,” Kozhemyako said in a meeting with Hu Jiafu, head of Yanbian-Korean Autonomous Prefecture.
The statement comes after Moscow and Pyongyang signaled their willingness to intensify cooperation since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine last year.
North Korea has openly backed Russia’s invasion, while the North’s foreign minister Choe Sun Hui recently stated that Moscow and Pyongyang are ushering in a new “heyday” in friendly ties.