The Hankyoreh reports that after Oct. 9’s North Korean nuclear test, the China’s military constructed a wire fence along its border with North Korea to keep refugees from fleeing into China.
According to a local resident, a PLA platoon put up the fence, made of wire and concrete posts, on Oct. 11, shortly after Pyongyang’s nuke test announcement. The fence was placed some 20km northeast of the Chinese border city of Dandong. It’s the first fence ever constructed along the border of the two allies.
The fence is built along an embankment of the Yalu River, blocking would-be refugees from coming ashore. The fence is concentrated along shallow and narrow spots in the river.
So far, some 20km of fence has been installed, but authorities have informed local residents that more fencing is on the way.
Meanwhile, in case China didn’t make its displeasure with the North clear enough, banks in Dandong have stopped taking applications for cash remittances to North Korea. Similar measures were taken in 2003, when China temporarily suspended shipments of oil to the North.
5 Comments
Could this lead to a major decline in the number of people crossing the river between NK and China? If so, could it have a deleterious effect on the flow of information, videos, etc.?
Knowing how the Chinese operate, they’ll probably shoot the refugees, and if it doesn’t work, they’ll then artillary barrage the fleeing refugees back to North Korea.
Having seen photographs of the fence, I doubt it will in any way stem the tide of refugees, not unless there are also manned guards or land mines.
From what I’ve managed to learn, the fence is only 20 km long and was built in 3 days at the narrowest junction of the Yalu.
The fence itself is just a long series of concrete “T” shaped pylons linked with several rows of barbed wire. It wouldn’t be too difficult to either A) cut through the barbed wire (same as you would a chain link fence) or B) Dig into the soft riverbed earth and tunnel underneath the wires. The fence is really temporary and ad-hoc.
In your op, Jing, which fence would be more ineffective?
The one going up along the Yalu or the other one going up along the Rio Grande?
The more effective fence would be the one which is more seriously patrolled. Have you seen the fence, and I use that term loosely, that the Israeli’s put up? Armored watch towers, solid concrete walls in some places, vehicle traps, multiple defensive layers, regular patrols with unmanned surveillance. A fence will only keep people out to the extent of the builders intention.
2 Trackbacks
[...] As the Flying Yangban mentioned previously on this blog, China is also busy erecting a fence along its border with NK and stopping cash remittances to NK (at least in Dandong). There are more details in this AP article. This fence may do as much harm as good, if it keeps refugees out of China and stems the flow of outside-world information into NK. [...]
[...] China is building a wire fence along the Nork border. I guess that will blow the Mexicans appeal to the UN for the fence we are going to build. But then again, probably not. [...]