China Strengthens Economic Ties with North Korea by Building a High-Speed Rail

On its effort to boost economic ties with North Korea, China came up with a project that aimed to give North Koreans easier access - a high-speed rail.

First reported on The Wall Street Journal in June 2013, the 6.3 billion-dollar construction kicked off in 2010. It would reportedly cover 207 kilometers connecting Shenyang to Dandong.

An official of the project said that this would "raise the region's economic competitiveness," with more than 80% of China-North Korea trade going through Dandong - located close to an economic zone in North Korea's Hwanggumpyong island.

This project, which has opened yesterday, is China's strategy to increase its market, operation and infrastructure around the border of North Korea.

It will provide convenience to the people in both nations, as they will no longer have to travel eight hours from Jilin to Hunchun, and vice versa. The travel period from Shenyang to Dandong will also be cut short to just more than an hour from the normal three and a half hours.

Reuters reported on Monday that the project is expected to result to a population growth in Hunchun. By 2020, the place will have a population of more than one million from today's figure of 200,000. What's more, it aims to promote the special economic zones along the border of North Korea, allowing its neighboring country to tap into low-cost labor while urging the North towards economic reform.

With the efforts of China to strengthen its ties with Pyongyang, analysts see this as a message that the nation does not want the economy of the North to fall down.

"The Chinese are clearly sending messages to North Korea and they've been putting up less of a fight on North Korea's behalf, but the preference still is to do big-ticket economic cooperation," an expert from the Yonsei University John Delury said.

"From an American government point of view, that's in contradiction to the main strategy."