Sinŭiju Special Administrative Region is a
special administrative region (SAR) of
North Korea proclaimed in 2002 (but has not been put into
de facto operation as of 2014), 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 (SARs),
Hong Kong and
Macau, and, like them, has a "Basic Law" (기본법; Kibonpŏp).