[imText1]
The Chinese authorities have been constructing high levees and replacing barbed wire fencing along the riverbank that forms part of the easterly Sino-North Korean border, a source from the region has confirmed.
The man-made barriers are intended to prevent illegal cross-border transit and defection, and derive from the reality that while many kilometers of barbed wire fencing have been laid along the border in recent years, the Chinese authorities have not been able to achieve full security.
A source, who lives near Musan in North Hamkyung Province, explained that fresh barbed wire fencing has been going up along parts of the Chinese side of the border since summer 2012. However, to cut off river-crossing more effectively, 5m levees have also been built on the backside of the fencing at key locations.
The source reported, “People from here have noted the construction of levees in areas where the river is crossable. We assume that the Chinese government enacted these special measures because they couldn’t stop people from Chosun crossing the river to work, something borne of the fact that the economic situation inside Chosun remains pretty tough.”
“The construction is happening primarily in those areas where river crossing is easiest,” the source went on. “But they are focusing both the levees and fences in particular on places where defections, shootings, and drug trafficking continue to occur despite restrictions put in place by both Chosun and China.”
“In the past there have been some gun fights between Chinese drug traders working with local Chinese security forces and Chosun drug traders working with their own border guards,” the source recalled. “The Chinese authorities have built levees to prevent further altercations of a similar nature, but they didn’t erect barbed wire fences then so it didn’t do much good.”
[imText2]
[imText3]
