China, Russia Investing In North Korea's Port City, Rason.

In the northeastern tip of North Korea, Chinese and Russian construction crews are racing to build transportation lines to a long-neglected port city that might now become an oasis for foreign investment.

Rason, N. Korea

Chinese workers, living in roadside tents, are widening and paving a 31-mile road whose condition was once so mangled that trucks needed three hours to travel it. Russians, meantime, are finishing a $200 million renovation project on 34-mile stretch of railroad.
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Twenty years ago North Korea designated Rason as a special economic zone, but the leadership in Pyongyang, ambivalent about loosening its state-run economy, spent the subsequent 19 years ignoring Rason’s potential. Only this year have North Korean officials delivered a new message, touting Rason as their mini-Singapore — a business-friendly hub with cheap labor, low taxes and a soon-to-arrive Internet connection for foreigners.





Washington Post