The Role of the Border Region in Sino-North Korean Trading Networks: A Focus on Dandong, China

Kyungsoo Lee

Journal of Borderlands Studies, 2023, vol. 38, issue 1, 59-74

Abstract: This research investigated the micro-level Sino-North Korean trading practices in Chinese border city Dandong with the help of a network approach. Dandong companies had long-term business relations with North Korea and took brokerage roles by channeling North Korean information, personnel, and products to the outside world. Dandong took an indispensible role in providing access to North Korean-related businesses with the advantage coming from historically-built personal relations, convenient logistics directly linking to Pyongyang, and easy access to North Korean economic agents. They leveraged brokerage roles in Sino-North Korean trading networks and contributed to give the networks a high-level of path-dependency. The strategies of Chinese border companies and less-institutionalized trading system of North Korea provided existing partners distinctive advantages in business relations. These practices that endowed border companies unique brokerage roles are likely to persist until a dramatic change in North Korea and its international environments.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1080/08865655.2020.1865186

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