SEOUL — North Korea’s economic dependence on China is excessive and is still growing, a South Korean think tank reported.
North Korea watchers here are privately expressing concerns that China harbors colonial ambitions toward the Korean peninsula.
Andrei Rankov of the Australian National University and currently a visiting professor at Kookmin University in Seoul said some scholars call the Chinese drive a "neo-colonial push" whose ultimate goal is to see a pro-Chinese unified government on the Korean peninsula.
According to statistics released by the Korean Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP) in Seoul, Sino-North Korea two-way trade increased 43.3 percent during the first half of 2005 and now constitutes 48.7 percent of North Korea’s total trade volume.
Despite the lofty growth of the two-way trade, however, only 15 North Korean export items were considered specialized products while 78 import items were categorized as vital to North Korean economy.
“North Korea’s dependence on China in the fields of industrial production, commodity supply, service, distribution and financing has reached a serious level,” said the report.
Statistics released by the customs office in the Chinese border city of Dandong, gateway of Sino-North Korean border trade, confirmed this lopsided trend.
The statistics showed total exports to North Korea in 2005 were $640 million, a 21.7 percent increase from the previous year, while imports decreased 24 percent to $190 million. The statistics showed that Dandong recorded $450 million profit from the trade with North Korea.
Crude oil was the single largest export item for China at $190 million, followed by electronics and machineries ($100 million) and agricultural products ($76 million).
