Trucks move across the bridge linking North Korea with the Chinese border city of Dandong, in file photo. Reuters
Radio Free Asia: North Korea Takes Down Guard Posts on Roads in China Border Areas
North Korea is dismantling guard posts along major roads in areas near China in a bid to ease traffic and the flow of smuggled and imported goods in the sanctions-hit country, North Korean sources say.
Inspections at multiple points along the roads, sometimes at checkpoints staffed by farm and factory guards, had previously slowed distribution and enabled demands for the payment of bribes, a source in North Hamgyong province told RFA’s Korean Service.
“State Security and People’s Security police posts used to be situated throughout the area,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Even guards from factories and farms used to set up posts in different places.”
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WNU Editor: This is one huge red flag for me. This is how the Warsaw Pact and ultimately the Soviet Union fell apart .... they opened their borders and then everything changed. As to why have the border posts been removed .... I think it is a symptom on how much North Korea is now breaking down. The border guards are no longer enforcing the border .... pay them the right bribe and/or give them goods .... and you will pass through. The North Korean regime knows this, and have decided that it is in their interest to just let the traffic go through. This is also a big red flag for those in North Korea who want the country. They have just been told that they can leave.
3 comments:
So what will China's reaction be should war break out? They said before that if the U.S. initiates they would side with North Korea. Do you still think this is the case? I doubt China wants a U.S. allied Korea directly on it's borders. At the same time, the U.S. market is very important to the Chinese economy. The U.S. and Chinese intertwined economies seem to complicate any kind of overt confrontation between the two.
WNU,
"This is one huge red flag for me" Yeah.
WNU,
To follow up on above, it looks like it's gotten away from Kim. He's killed too many too close to him. If there is a change (and it looks like it) the Chinese are in on it or at least they think they are and what the change will turn out to be I think no one can predict.
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