Sinuiju Special Administrative Region


Sinŭiju Special Administrative Region is a special administrative region of North Korea proclaimed in 2002, on the border with China. It was established in September 2002 in an area including parts of Sinŭiju and the surrounding area, in an attempt to introduce market economics, and is directly governed as in the case of "Directly Governed Cities". The special administrative region was modelled after China's Special Administrative Regions, Hong Kong and Macau, and, like them, has a "Basic Law".
Chinese-Dutch businessman Yang Bin was appointed to be the first governor by the SPA Presidium in 2002. Before he formally assumed his post, he was arrested by Chinese authorities and sentenced to 18 years in prison for tax evasion and other economic crimes. While the North Korean authorities soon announced that the development of the Sinŭiju SAR would continue and the SAR was put under the administration of its Commission of Foreign Economic Cooperation Promotion, the plans for the SAR seem to have been abandoned. As of April 2008, the SAR reforms still have not been put into effect, and it is widely believed that North Korea has abandoned the project after the governor's arrest. Julie Sa was appointed governor in 2004.
Between 2013 and 2018, a smaller Sinuiju International Economic Zone was developed, backed by the state-owned Sinuiju Zone Development Corporation. It hopes to develop high value projects such as software development, computer manufacturing and trade-related services.

Area included in the Special Administrative Region

The order below follows the order given in the original decree .

Sinŭiju city">Sinŭiju City">Sinŭiju city (신의주시; 新義州市)

Due to the areas included in the Special Administrative Region, it is not one single contiguous region, as to get from Sinŭiju city to Yŏmju county, one must pass through another county outside the region first.

Transportation

The SAR is served by rail at the Sinuiju Cheongnyeon Station. This station is a terminus station for trains from Pyeongyang. Rail traffic from the station continues across the Sino–Korean Friendship Bridge over to China over the Yalu River. Public transport consists of trolleybuses.

Economy

A few factories exist in Sinuiju, some producing consumer products for local use.