China, North Korea: SEZ Who? · Global Voices
Jose Manuel Tesoro

Matthew Stinson has serious doubts about North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's apparent toying with China-style Special Economic Zones (SEZs): “The larger problem is that Kim is unlikely to allow the kind of innovation in development that would make the North’s SEZs a real success. Why? Because doing so not only invites “infiltration” by foreign political culture, it also runs the risk of shifting the balance of political power away from Pyongyang and towards the SEZs.”