VZCZCXRO4408
PP RUEHCN RUEHGH RUEHVC
DE RUEHSH #0185/01 2930324
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 200324Z OCT 09
FM AMCONSUL SHENYANG
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8870
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC 0230
RHMFISS/COMUSKOREA J2 SEOUL KOR
RUEKJCS/DIA WASHDC 0173
RUCGEVC/JOINT STAFF WASHDC 0123
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC 0182

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 SHENYANG 000185 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/K, EAP/CM, INR 
MOSCOW PASS TO VLADIVOSTOK 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: TEN YEARS AFTER KOREAN UNIFICATION 
TAGS: CH EAGR ECON KN KS PGOV PHUM PREF PREL
SUBJECT: YANBIAN SINO-KOREAN HARMONY: THIS IS HOW WE DO IT 
 
REF: A. SHENYANG 143 
     ¶B. SHENYANG 163 
 
Classified By: Consul General Stephen B. Wickman.  Reasons 1.4(b/d). 
 
¶1. (C) SUMMARY: China is hard at work on its ethnic minority 
policy in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture bordering 
Russia and North Korea.  In exchange for political 
allegiance, the Chinese seem to allow the local Sino-Koreans 
considerable sovereignty in governing most issues, from 
refugees to economic relations with the Koreas.  Meanwhile, 
our contacts in the area report that their usually combative 
North Korean counterparts have become more accommodating 
than in recent memory.  Contacts recently returned from 
North Korea say the food situation continues to be stable in 
comparison to past years.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (U) Consul General and ConGenOff traveled to Jilin 
Province's Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture October 15- 
18 to participate in the celebration of Yanbian University's 
60th anniversary.  Notable guests included former State 
Ethnic Affairs Commission Chairman Li Dezhu, Vice Minister 
of Education Lu Xin, Jilin Province Party Secretary Wang 
Min, Kim Il-Sung University President Song Ja-rip, and the 
Director of the North Korean Academy of Social Sciences. 
 
CHINESE MESSAGE: ETHNIC SOLIDARITY 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶3. (C) For a small university on the China-DPRK border, 
Yanbian University's 60th anniversary ceremony was attended 
by a large number of luminaries, including the former State 
Ethnic Affairs Commission Chairman Li Dezhu, himself a Sino- 
Korean.  University President Jin Bingmin punctuated his 
keynote address with more than one pointed reference to 
"ethnic harmony" and solidarity between the Korean and Han 
Chinese people of the Prefecture, a theme repeated 
throughout the weekend's festivities. 
 
¶4. (C) During dinner before the party began watching the 
televised confessions of the Uighurs convicted for their 
part in the Urumqi violence, the university's Foreign 
Affairs Office (FAO) Director Liu Mingzhu, a Sino-Korean, 
shook his head and said: "Something like that would never, 
ever happen here... impossible."  After several minutes of 
watching violent replay, Liu said the news was "depressing" 
and asked the waitress to change the channel. 
 
¶5. (C) Even more over the top were the antics of a Beijing- 
based Sino-Korean "boy band" performing at a star-studded 
musical event featuring well-known alumni and headlined by 
the Sino-Korean winner of China's 2008 "American Idol"-style 
CCTV talent competition.  The Beijing-based band took the 
stage to a screaming crowd of hundreds of students and 
community members.  Prancing about the stage, warming up the 
audience, and building up the crowd to garner screams of 
many female college students, the band leader asked all of 
the Sino-Koreans in the audience to "raise their hands and 
cheer."  The Sino-Koreans cheered loudly.  He then asked all 
of the Han Chinese students in the crowd to do the same, and 
the Han Chinese crowd did their best to outdo the Sino- 
Koreans and cheered loudly.  Satisfied by the substantial 
volume from both quarters, the band leader then excitedly 
reminded the entire audience that they were "all Chinese, 
the future of the People's Republic of China" and asked 
everyone to cheer "together."  The crowd, somewhat 
nonplussed, cheered loudly, but the sudden political 
correctness seemed to dampen an even louder final cheer. 
 
SPLIT NORTH KOREAN PERSONALITY 
------------------------------ 
 
¶6. (C) Yanbian University of Science and Technology (YUST) 
and Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) 
Vice President David Kim was back in town for the 
festivities, at least partly because he said it made no 
sense for him to remain in Pyongyang as planned when the 
university was not yet up and running.  Kim said that his 
North Korean Education Ministry interlocutors were very 
positive and cooperative during his short stay in Pyongyang, 
proposing that the PUST leadership go ahead with its plan to 
begin business courses this fall.  However, Kim convinced 
other PUST leaders to set their sights on a successful April 
 
SHENYANG 00000185  002 OF 002 
 
 
1, 2010 launch rather than a late fall escapade that might 
unwittingly derail the entire project. 
 
¶7. (C) FAO Director Liu spent the Chinese national day 
holidays accompanying a delegation of agricultural experts 
to Rason, far from Pyongyang, where the university had 
donated rice, wheat, and potato seeds and shared farming 
best practices.  Liu said that in contrast to his previous 
visits to North Korea a few years ago, his North Korean 
hosts were more laid back, less focused on protocol and 
propaganda, and more focused on making outreach and 
achieving shared goals (Ref A). 
 
¶8. (C) Sino-Korean Yanbian University lecturer Jin Xinghai 
said that while he enjoyed visiting North Korea because of 
its cleanliness, hospitality, and the fact that he had 
relatives in North Korea, he echoed a common complaint of 
Chinese officials who have extensive DPRK dealings.  He said 
the North Koreans regularly caused a protocol ruckus by 
finding excuses to get angry at their Sino-Korean hosts 
(NOTE: the Prefectural FAO Vice Director also told us she 
dreaded having to host North Korean delegations to Yanbian 
because they would undoubtedly find something to get angry 
about). 
 
¶9. (C) Jin cited the visiting North Korean delegation to the 
University's 60th anniversary festivities as an example. 
Their flight from Shenyang arrived after the start of a 
dinner banquet; while the Kim Il-sung University president 
was quickly ushered to his seat at the head table, the rest 
of the roughly 20-member delegation was seated further away 
from the front.  With the exception of the president, the 
entire delegation walked out thinking they had been 
disrespected.  Jin praised FAO Director Liu for reminding 
the Yanbian University leadership that "a poor country with 
a damaged ego" is more likely to be offended and act petty. 
Liu convinced the Yanbian University President to pay 
special attention to the North Korean delegation at a 
banquet on their final night before returning to Pyongyang 
via Shenyang. 
 
FOOD SITUATION IMPROVED, DEFECTORS IN YANBIAN LEFT ALONE 
--------------------------------------------- ----------- 
 
¶10. (C) YUST Dean Norma Nichols, also recently returned from 
Pyongyang, relayed the puzzled statements of a Western aid 
organization leader who was with her on the same trip for 
PUST's dedication (Ref B).  The aid director, a veteran of 
religious charity work in sub-Saharan Africa, expressed 
surprise at the appearance of Pyongyang citizens somewhat 
critically:  "I know what starving people look like... these 
people are clearly not starving."  Nichols said that 
Pyongyang in September 2009 was a "world apart" from her 
prior visit in the late 1990s as an aid observer and that 
the food situation appeared to be much better.  She assumed, 
however, that remote rural areas were much worse off than 
Pyongyang or the PRC-DPRK border regions. 
 
¶11. (C) A Sino-Korean trader whose childhood friends are 
actively involved in farming exchanges, however, said the 
situation was far from being ideal.  Apart from the obvious 
shortages of arable land and fertilizer that perennially 
limited North Korea's total output, his expert friends 
complained about poor land management, such as overplanting 
and monoculture fields. 
 
¶12. (C) When Congenoff asked David Kim about the situation 
of undocumented North Koreans living "illegally" in China, 
Kim opined once again that the Chinese officials in Yanbian 
were "reasonable" and "willing to turn a blind eye" to their 
presence. 
 
WICKMAN