Travel Guide Zone Rajin – Sonbong 라진선봉 경제특구

The Rajin - Sonbong Special Economic Zone is also called Rason, after the juxtaposition of the first syllables of the names of the two cities Rajin and Songbong that make it up. Created in 1993, it is a special administrative zone located on the border with China (Jilin province) and Russia (Primoria Krai, between the Tyumen River and the Sea of Japan (or East Sea). Absorbed by the North Hamgyong region between 2004 and 2009, the Rason area became in 2010 a "special" city (strategic understanding from an economic point of view), where the country's largest oil refinery is located today. Its geographical position makes it an ideal place for the development of trade links between the three countries.The creation of the economic zone is part of a larger project: TREDA (Trumen River Development Project), implemented by the United Nations, Russia, Mongolia, North Korea and South Korea. Pyongyang offers foreign investors favourable conditions to settle there without much success: the lack of infrastructure and international sanctions have discouraged potential investors, with the exception of the Chinese who have settled there in large numbers.According to the North Korean official website, the administration of the area is directly under the prerogatives of the local government, more specifically the Economic Cooperation Office of the People's Municipal Committee of the Rason area, as well as that of the North Korean Central Bank. By 2015, about 150 foreign companies were established in the area, and the minimum wage has been set at $80 per month since 2011 (compared to $170 paid for equivalent work on the Chinese side and $64 paid to workers in the Kaesong Special Economic Zone in the same year).