North Korea: On The Borderline

[SunWuKong]

NORTH KOREA: ON THE BORDERLINE
Part 1: Soldiers head for the frontier
By Alan Fung

Recently, reports have been surfacing about extraordinary movements along the border between China and North Korea. On September 14, Hong Kong's Sing Tao Daily carried a report that up to 150,000 People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops had been deployed on the border, replacing local armed police. On September 15 Kong Quan, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, released a statement that the PLA troops were taking on responsibility for defense of the border as a normal adjustment that was part of China's efforts to unify border control. At the same time, Ta Kung Pao newspaper, the mainland's mouthpiece in Hong Kong, carried a series of reports that there was no large-scale deployment along the border. Its journalists had paid visits to various towns along border and found no illicit crossings of the border. Everything, it reported, seemed to be normal along the border. What is really happening along the Sino-North Korean border? Asia Times Online has dispatched correspondents to the scene to dig out the truth, and this is the first of a series of their reports.

HONG KONG - Six army trucks each carrying about 40 PLA soldiers roared along National Highway 302 from Yanji to Tumen around 4pm on September 20, passing just within this correspondent's sight. They were the first crop of troops to take over the frontier defense from the armed police.

Later the same day I arrived at Yanji, capital of Yanbian Chosun Autonomous Prefecture in Jilin province, on my way to Tumen, a border city about 80 kilometers and 50 minutes' drive along Highway 302 from Yanji.

Amid the stopover in Yanji, nothing seemed unusual or tense. But almost everybody I spoke to gave me the same kind-hearted suggestion that I not venture out at night.

Near the Tumen checkpoint, a scrubby panhandler came my way, mooching money with a strong North Korean accent, which differs greatly from South Korean and Chinese Korean. Upon my questioning, he admitted his identity as a North Korean, but soon turned tail in a panicky hurry when I tried inviting him to a meal.

"He's one of the illegal migrants from North Korea begging from the tourists in the region. They won't go back home until they have 200 or 300 yuan in their pocket," said Dongyuan, my driver, partly dispelling my bewilderment.

But how does one tell a North Korean illegal from a legitimate Chinese Korean? It's quite simple, said Dongyuan, himself a Chinese Korean: "There is no Chinese Korean who cannot speak Putonghua, while there may be some who cannot speak Korean." Putonghua, or "the general language", is what Chinese call the People's Republic's official language, know to the outside world as Mandarin.


more... (http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/EI30Dg04.html)

[SunWuKong]

NORTH KOREA: ON THE BORDERLINE
Part 2: All quiet on the Dandong front
By Alan Fung

HONG KONG - Military and civil-defense maneuvers in Shenyang (the provincial capital of Liaoning in northeastern China) Militarized Zone since mid-August have been in the headlines of the PLA Daily, a Chinese military organ, to deliver a message: the People's Liberation Army is standing ready for any challenging test.

To ram the message home, the paper last Thursday reported on an artillery regiment equipped with sophisticated weaponry and techniques and recalled a momentous task one year ago that upgraded the combat ability of the young elite troops.

Yet the message has not daunted Dandong, a town on the Sino-North Korean border and 300 kilometers from the provincial capital. The latest military deployment hardly seems a concern of the townsfolk.

The atmosphere in Dandong was completely different from that in border towns such as Huichun and Fangchang in Jilin province. Although these towns were said to be free of any tense atmosphere, I nevertheless felt some tension there after I received many admonishments on public security and was even prohibited from taking pictures of strategic sites. Such an atmosphere kept reminding me to behave myself there.

In contrast, the situation in Dandong was the other way around. No warnings, no hassle by authorities. Everyone I met reassured me about local order and that it was safe to go out at night. In addition, no illegal immigrants from North Korea are ever found in Dandong, I was told.


more... (http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/EJ01Dg04.html)

[SunWuKong]

NORTH KOREA: ON THE BORDERLINE
Part 3: The past returns to Ji'an
By Miao Ye

HONG KONG - While China attempts to play down its military buildup along the border with North Korea by describing it as a "normal adjustment", an Asia Times Online correspondent has spotted about 7,000 soldiers stationed in Ji'an, a small border city in Jilin province in northeastern China where, it seems, history has returned.

Once occupied by troops from the Leifeng Regiment during the Korean War, Ji'an later evolved into a tourist resort because it boasts a number of historic cultural relics. However, the influx of tourists has slowed and the town now looks more like a fortress than a vacation destination. Over the past month the historical sites have all been closed and no one can be admitted without municipal permission. As more and more soldiers arrive, townspeople are being resettled, and residential houses are being demolished to make room for barracks to lodge the incoming People's Liberation Army troops.

Ji'an sits just beside the Yalu River, the waterway separating China from North Korea. The city's only checkpoint along the North Korean border is now guarded by more than 40 Chinese soldiers, and North Koreans on the other side can read very well what these signs mean.


more... (http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/EJ02Dg03.html)

[SunWuKong]

NORTH KOREA: ON THE BORDERLINE
Part 4: Historic city tightens up
By Miao Ye

HONG KONG - Recently an undisclosed source revealed to Asia Times Online that there was an advance party of 7,000 soldiers deployed in Ji'an city, Jilin province, while another large number of troops is to be deployed late this year or early next, making the total number of troops 20,000-30,000.

One of the three major border points between China and North Korea, Ji'an is in the southeastern part of Jilin province. China and North Korea are separated by the Yalu River. In Jilin, the river is so narrow that one can see Man Po, the sixth-largest city in North Korea, on the other side. At the beginning of the Korean War, the 39th Army of the PLA (People's Liberation Army) entered North Korea from Jilin during the "Help North Korea, Fight America" era.

When ATol correspondents visited Ji'an, the city was very calm. Local residents said they thought the Sino-North Korean relationship was a very peaceful one. Nothing unusual happens there, apparently. According to the residents, it was only when the North Korean nuclear crisis surfaced that extra troops were seen on the Korean side of the river. The atmosphere at that time was tense, and all travel and trade activities stopped. But now everything is back to normal, the residents said.

Despite the apparent calm, however, an advance party of PLA soldiers was deployed in the area late last month. About 7,000 of them were distributed to several remote towns. That is why a lot of Ji'an residents are unaware of their presence.


more... (http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/EJ03Dg04.html)

[SunWuKong]

NORTH KOREA: ON THE BORDERLINE
Part 5: A slice of Korea in China
By Alan Fung

HONG KONG - A flight from Changchun, the capital of northeastern China's Jilin province, to Yanji takes about 40 minutes, including 15 minutes' climbing, 20 minutes' landing and only five minutes at the "cruising" height of 7,000 meters. Given this short flight, it is amazing that the two neighboring cities are linked by air.

But what strikes one most is Yanji Airport, which is has boarding bridges and a standard two-story departure lounge with an international division, looking more imposing than the provincial capital airport in Changchun.

Aside from the two mentioned airports, there is a third one in Jilin city, the former provincial capital. Boasting the largest airport among the three, Yanji displays its importance in the blueprint of China.

"It is more proper to describe [Yanji] as a Korean town than a Chinese one," my guide and driver Dongyuan told me.

Indeed, the whole Yanbian Choson (Korean) Autonomous Prefecture seems not part of China, especially its southern part bordering the Korean Peninsula. In Yanji, for instance, more than 60 percent of the 400,000 population are ethnic Koreans ("Chosons" as they are known in Chinese); signposts and billboards appear in both Chinese and Choson, but with the latter predominant; Korean instead of Mandarin is the spoken language.

Of the hottest television channels, four are broadcast in Korean, including two Yanbian-based stations and two others from South Korea: KBS (Korean Broadcasting System) and MBC (Munhwa Broadcasting Corp). A South Korean fad is flooding the locality with its TV plays, singers and movie stars, while the Hong Kong celebrities popular in mainland China can hardly find a corner there. Channels from North Korea are also accessible, but Yanbian people are not very interested in them.


more... (http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/EJ04Dg01.html)

[SunWuKong]

NORTH KOREA: ON THE BORDERLINE
Part 6: Sorrows of a North Korean girl
By Alan Fung

HONG KONG - Although it is widely known in Yanbian Choson (ethnic Korean) Autonomous Prefecture in Jilin province that 150,000 People's Liberation Army troops have been deployed on the Sino-North Korean border, this news has not put a damper on local people's nightlife.

Yanbian boasts beautiful scenery. One of its most famous scenic spots is the Changbai Mountains, a great attraction to Choson people from both sides of the border. However, behind all these beautiful landscapes is the grief and sorrow of many young women from North Korea.

Yanji, which is scarcely larger than Hong Kong with an area of 1,345 square kilometers, is in the eastern part of Jilin province. It is the capital of Yanbian Choson Autonomous Prefecture. During the day the city seems very ordinary, and lacking in character. All that changes when the sun sets.

When night falls, the neon lights of shop signs shine through the whole city. No longer seen are the dust and sand raised by trucks passing during the daytime. Instead, the city is alive with people dressed to the nines headed to nightclubs. Although the public order at night is marred by crimes as serious as murders committed by illegal immigrants, this has not hindered the development of the entertainment business.

And as is the case elsewhere in mainland China, the entertainment business always seems linked with the sex industry. "In my homeland, we do not even have enough food to feed ourselves. If I did not leave for work, my whole family would starve to death," said Hae Jung, a North Korean girl.


more... (http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/EJ07Dg01.html)

[VV o n g B a]

NORTH KOREA: ON THE BORDERLINE
Asia Times Online does China a favor

Editor's note

HONG KONG - With the benefit of hindsight, Asia Times Online has realized that it has done China a great favor in our series of reports on the military buildup on the China-North Korea border. In a word, China wants the world to learn of this massive military buildup, but it does not want word of it to seep from its own lips.

The news was first leaked to Sing Tao Daily, a world-renowned Chinese paper owned by a Standing Committee member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. But Sing Tao did not follow up the story with on-the-spot observations. I would say this was due to incompetent editorial management. In fact, in this major breaking of news, the paper even confused the terms "garrison" and "regiment".

The first paper to report from the border was Ta Kung Pao, a Hong Kong-based but China-controlled paper. Its reports emphasized the lack of a 150,000-strong military buildup, as Sing Tao had reported. Ironically, it nevertheless reported the existence of a regiment in a town that normally would house only a company. ATol correspondents were at the scene about the time Ta Kung Pao made its reports.

The picture now is as clear as crystal. China has deployed new troops to the border with North Korea at Jilin. They are not to take over the patrolling duty from the armed police, as officials say. They are purely reinforcements to prepare for a war. The fear is a US assault on North Korea that could spill over into China. At present there are advance formations only, numbering around 20,000. Barracks are being constructed and roads are being upgraded to prepare for what may ensue. These troops are not meant to repeat what happened half a century ago - to help fight back a US invasion - but to fend off any foreign military elements entering China.

For China to tell the whole world it is now building up to fend off North Korea, with which it has a mutual-defense treaty, would be embarrassing. It is better uttered by a party China has no connection with. ATol did not mean to do China a favor. By default, we did so.

Wong Kwok Wah
Editor
Chinese version

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/EJ07Dg02.html