China has secured the exclusive right to develop and utilize docks 4, 5 and 6 at Rasun and for 50 years, according to Yonhap.
China will also build an airfield and thermoelectric power plant in the Rasun Special Economic Zone (SEZ), along with a 55km railroad from Tumen in Jilin Province to Rasun. North Korea and China agreed on the contract worth $3 billion at the end of last year, according to the report.
China has agreed to dig out dock 4 at Rasun to make it possible for 70,000 ton vessels to dock and to construct a runway long enough to accommodate passenger and cargo aircraft within the SEZ; the railroad is due to be complete by 2020, while the development of dock 5 and 6 will follow that of dock 4, Yonhap sources claim.
This agreement was reportedly signed quietly by North Korea’s Joint Ventures Committee and the Chinese government shortly before Kim Jong Il’s death.
The Chinese government has wanted to see the ports at Rasun and Chongjin opened up to Chinese industry for many years to promote its ‘Changchun-Jilin-Tumen’ development plan for its effectively landlocked ‘3 Northeastern Provinces’. A Chinese firm, the Dalian-based Chuangli Group, reportedly leased dock 1 at Rasun for ten years in 2009.
