China is reportedly moving missile defense batteries and
troops closer to its border with North Korea, a potential sign that
Beijing anticipates either a large refugee wave north or a military disturbance
triggered by the belligerence of communist dictator Kim Jong-un.
The South Korean
newspaper Chosun
Ilbo cited Radio
Free Asia (RFA) in a report Monday, stating that RFA had compiled evidence that
China had “late last year deployed another missile defense battery at an
armored division in Helong, west of Longjing in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous
Prefecture.”
The “North
Korean source in China” speaking to RFA also noted that Pyongyang had observed
the movement of 300,000 troops closer to the North Korean border and “missile
defense batteries near North Korean reservoirs by the Apnok and Duman rivers.”
The batteries would prevent the violent outpouring of those reservoirs into
China in the event of an airstrike.
On Friday, China’s
state-run People’s
Daily newspaper reported that
Beijing was also investing in establishing nuclear monitoring stations
throughout the world, but especially near North Korea, to more rapidly gather
information about a potential airstrike. While carefully noting that “detection
is not targeted at any particular country,” the newspaper noted that the
planned 11 nuclear monitoring stations “are responsible for detecting nuclear
activities in neighboring countries, including North Korea.”
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The People’s Daily claims the
monitor plan “shows China’s commitment to global nonproliferation.” Taken in
tandem with reports of military movements near North Korea, however, this
development indicates concern that a major military or political event in North
Korea will impact China significantly.
Another state newspaper,
the Global
Times, remarked on
U.S. President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address last week that “risks
of US military action are growing.” Trump singled North Korea out as the
world’s most egregious human rights abuser, celebrating the plight of North
Korean refugees who risked their lives to escape.
In December, Chosun Ilbo reported that
China is not only using its military assets to prepare for a potential
catastrophe in North Korea; the newspaper cited Japanese media that had
revealed evidence of China’s building massive refugee camps near the North
Korean border, some that could welcome up to half-a-million
refugees. Officials reportedly ordered the construction of such camps in
Jilin, the same city where state media published a
citizens’ guide to surviving a nuclear war triggered by North Korea.
The state-run Jilin Daily published an
article in December suggesting citizens “close their windows and doors during
an emergency and immediately take a shower and wash out their mouths and ears
after being exposed to radiation.” It mentioned potential
regional tensions without blaming North Korea directly.
While state
media remained subtle about government fears regarding North Korea, communist
academics made clear in December that they believed Kim Jong-un’s regime
could not be trusted to keep China out of a major regional war.
“North Korea is a time
bomb,” remarked Professor
Shi Yinhong. “We can only delay the explosion, hoping that by delaying it, a
time will come to remove the detonator.”
China, North Korea’s
largest trade partner, almost single-handedly keeps
Kim’s economy afloat. Through a tense year for Kim and President Trump, who has
not shied away from challenging the autocrat, China stuck by North Korea, increasing trade to
the fellow communist country. Beijing has abided by some United Nations
sanctions, however, and forced businesses on North Korea’s border to limit
their contact with the regime.
According to Radio
Free Asia, businesses along the border “are now being severely hurt
as wider customs controls are established along the border, sources working in
the area say.” Many of these businesses traffic in goods that are not obvious
candidates for sanctions, such as cosmetics and paper. RFA suggests that those
impacted on the ground have soured on North Korea’s government, as its
belligerence has triggered the sanctions.
Dictator
Kim Jong-un has rejected all attempts by the global community to convince the
country to abandon its illegal nuclear weapons program and has continued
testing ballistic missiles and suggesting that their ultimate destination will
be the United States.
On the other side of the
border, RFA reported that
Pyongyang is “stirring up anti-China sentiment among ordinary citizens through
conferences and lecture sessions as the closed, authoritarian country’s economy
bears the brunt of tough new economic sanctions supported by its longtime
ally.” North Korea rarely confronts China on international platforms, but even
this line was crossed in
2017, when the Korean Central News Agency accused China, without naming
the country, of “dancing to the tune of the U.S.” by agreeing to abide by U.N.
sanctions.