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INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
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RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 7859
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RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0007

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 SHENYANG 000128 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR INR, PRM, INL, EAP/CM, EAP/K, G/TIP 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: TEN YEARS AFTER KOREAN UNIFICATION 
TAGS: PREF PREL PINR PGOV KWMN KN KS CH
SUBJECT: PRC-DPRK: NORTH KOREAN BORDER-CROSSERS; DRUGS; NEW 
 BORDER FENCING; PLA ACTIVITY 
 
Classified By: CONSUL GENERAL STEPHEN B. WICKMAN. REASONS: 
1.4(b)/(d). 
 
¶1. (C) SUMMARY: Post contacts report that, at least 
anecdotally, the numbers of North Korean border-crossers 
encountered this year are fewer than last, though the 
overall numbers and reasons for the decline are unclear. 
Jilin Province's ongoing anti-drug campaign is netting more 
seizures of illegal narcotics, particularly 
methamphetamines, from localities along the PRC-DPRK 
border.  Local officials are highly uncomfortable 
discussing specifics.  Further south, PRC authorities near 
Dandong have extended their border fencing in an area where 
Post has also noticed a more robust level of military 
activity compared with previous visits in past months, 
though this is likely unrelated.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (C) Poloff traveled to a number of points along the PRC- 
DPRK border, including Dandong, Donggang and Hushan (June 
25-27), as well as Yanji, Nanping and Chongshan (June 18- 
21).  This is the second of two cables on the border in 
mid-2007; the first focused on border trade and PRC 
inspections thereof. 
 
NORTH KOREAN BORDER-CROSSERS: SOME ANECDOTAL OBSERVATIONS 
--------------------------------------------- ------------ 
¶3. (C) During a June 26 visit to Donggang, a county-level 
port city nearly 40 kilometers south of Dandong, Poloff 
spotted on the walls of many of the shipyards lining the 
thin two-lane road connecting Dandong and Donggang a number 
of banners and other posters exhorting residents to 
"strictly combat human smuggling" (yanli daji toudu).  A 
sign on the exterior wall of one shipyard along the Yalu 
River warned locals (roughly translated): "Once caught, 
alien smugglers hurt themselves, their families and 
others."  Others mentioned drug and human smuggling 
together; many called on locals to help create an "orderly, 
safe border."  Unlike all others Poloff came across, a 
banner further south festooning a People's Armed Police 
(PAP) building in Donggang specifically warned against 
illegal smuggling that involved North Korean goods and 
aliens.  Although Donggang falls under Dandong's 
administration, no posters/banners are to be seen in 
Dandong itself--and thus by the thousands of tourists that 
visit during the summer months. 
 
¶4. (C) Further north, contacts in Yanbian and Shenyang 
continue to relate that the numbers of North Korean border- 
crossers they are personally encountering this year are 
fewer than last.  Father Jin (protect) of the Ping'an 
Church just outside of Yanji, for example, told Poloff on 
June 26 that "not many" border-crossers had come to his 
church this month, much less in recent months.  "Just 
several" showed up in May, he said; none came in June. 
Jin, who in the past sheltered several North Koreans for a 
number of years and regularly tended to walk-ins, noted 
that his May walk-ins were not new arrivals to China.  He 
said they had actually been in China for "a while" and 
largely sought some transportation money.  Father LIAN 
Changyuan (protect) of Yanji's official Catholic Church, 
another clergyman who in the past has given succor to 
border-crossers, told Poloff later the same day that he, 
too, had recently come across "very few"--especially when 
compared to the late 1990s, when he received as many as ten 
new arrivals per day in Helong/Longjing, south of Yanji. 
 
¶5. (C) Others in recent months have reported higher flows. 
In early April, for instance, Yanbian University of Science 
and Technology (YUST) President James Kim (protect) claimed 
to be assisting 100-200 border-crossers per month.  Another 
knowledgeable YUST professor told Poloff in late June, 
however, that there nevertheless seemed to be fewer 
arrivals recently, though he was unclear why.  Many are 
equally uncertain.  KIM Jong Han (protect), who handles the 
refugee account for the ROK Consulate in Shenyang, has also 
noted an anecdotal decrease.  In a conversation with Poloff 
on June 25, he ascribed the drop-off to strengthened 
patrols on both sides of the border since last fall/winter, 
but he, too, acknowledged that other factors may be at 
 
SHENYANG 00000128  002 OF 002 
 
 
play. 
 
NORTH KOREAN DRUGS FURTHER NORTH ALONG THE BORDER 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
¶6. (C) Months into an anti-drug campaign, authorities in 
Jilin Province are announcing more seizures of narcotics 
from a number of areas directly along the PRC-DPRK border. 
Newspapers in the Yanbian Ethnic Korean Autonomous 
Prefecture have recently publicized a spate of busts in 
PRC-DPRK border localities (e.g., Helong, Longjing) made 
between December and late June--some quite large, often 
involving ethnic Korean Chinese caught trafficking 
methamphetamines allegedly bought from "people from outside 
the (Chinese) border" (jingwai renyuan).  On the ground, 
small reminders of the drug problem in Yanbian's border 
towns are periodically visible.  On the road that snakes 
along the PRC-DPRK border linking Nanping and Chongshan, 
for instance, Poloff on June 21 observed a number of signs 
specifically warning that the trafficking of drugs (and 
smuggling more generally) is illegal. 
 
¶7. (C) Jilin officials became noticeably uneasy when asked 
about the province's "Spring Thunder" campaign.  Jilin 
Province's Executive Deputy Governor, TIAN Xueren, told 
Poloff on June 1 that the province's drug problem-- 
particularly the trafficking of methamphetamines--is most 
pronounced in the "border region."  But Tian, a former 
high-level Yanbian official, demurred when pressed on the 
source of the drugs afflicting Jilin.  He offered only that 
the source was "outside of China." 
 
BORDER FENCING EXTENDED NEAR DANDONG 
------------------------------------ 
¶8. (C) For the first time in many months, PRC authorities 
near Dandong have extended fencing on the Chinese side of 
the PRC-DPRK border.  In Hushan (approximately 20 
kilometers north of Dandong) on June 26, Poloff observed a 
relatively small new section of fencing added since his 
visit in early May.  Less than a kilometer long and 
identical in structure to the other sections, the new 
fencing--unlike other parts of the preexisting stretch in 
Hushan--features at least two small built-in doors lockable 
with padlocks.  Poloff spotted one door wide open; a local 
fisherman passed easily through the other, making his way 
down to the Yalu River just below. 
 
PLA MILITARY ACTIVITY 
--------------------- 
¶9. (C) Slightly north of Dandong, Poloff continued to 
observe a slightly more robust level of military activity 
compared with prior visits before May of this year.  Along 
the Yalu River several kilometers north of Dandong (about 
halfway between the city proper and Hushan) Poloff at 
approximately 1400 on June 26 observed a People's 
Liberation Army (PLA) boating and bridging exercise on the 
banks of the Yalu River.  Assembled on the riverbank were 
approximately two companies of what appeared to be 
engineering troops--some wearing life jackets--flanked by a 
small number of parked convoy trucks; a number of portable 
bridge segments floated in the water.  (NOTE: Poloff for 
the first time encountered a similar exercise, with 
comparable numbers, in the same location on May 8 at 
approximately 1000.  END NOTE.)  Slightly north of the 
riverside exercise site, Poloff between 1400 and 1430 in 
Hushan observed a convoy of approximately 20-25 PLA 
cargo/utility trucks, most without plates and marked as 
"practice" vehicles; others contained proper Shenyang 
Military Region plates.  Meanwhile, a five-person PLA 
patrol armed with machine guns walked the PRC-DPRK border 
near Hushan. 
WICKMAN