Posted on 09/21/2015 2:40:43 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
PRC nationals in DPRK persecuted as Beijing and Seoul draw closer
Staff Reporter 2015-09-21 11:39 (GMT+8)
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has begun to purge Chinese citizens from his country as China's relations with Seoul improve at the expense of ties with Pyongyang, reports the Hong Kong-based Yazhou Zhoukan.
South Korea's president, Park Geun-hye, was one of the chief guests of honor at the military parade in Beijing on Sept. 3 to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. Kim declined to attend and was represented instead by his special envoy Choe Ryong-hae.
Xu Fusen, a Chinese merchant who formerly traveled between the Sinuiju Special Administrative Region of North Korea and Dandong in China's Liaoning province for business, told the paper that more than 100 Chinese nationals in North Korea have been arrested accused of espionage or spreading video clips showing what life is like in South Korea. Most of them were sentenced to eight years in prison but some were sentenced to life behind bars.
Furthermore, for the first time since the establishment of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, two Chinese citizens were recently executed in the country, according to Xu. The alliance established during the Korean War is now said to be slowly collapsing since Kim Jong-un succeeded his father Kim Jong-il after the latter's death at the end of 2011. At the end of 2013, Kim Jong-un ordered the death of his uncle Jang Sung-taek, who had advocated greater economic interaction with China.
Park Geun-hye's trip to Beijing for the World War II parade further increased tensions between China and North Korea and carried ironic echoes from history. During the 1930s and 40s, Kim Jong-un's grandfather, DPRK founder Kim Il-sung, fought side by side with Chinese Communists in the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army against Japan in Manchuria while Park Geun-hye's father Park Chung-hee was an officer in the army of Manchukuo, the puppet state set up by Japan in the region. Park would later be South Korea's president from 1962 to 1979, seizing power in a military coup.
During the Cold War, Park Chung-hee's regime was criticized by Beijing as a reactionary force on the Korean peninsula due to its close alliance with Chiang Kai-shek's Repulic of China government on Taiwan. Yet just like Kim Il-sung, Park was a strong Korean nationalist. He was eventually considered a troublemaker by both the Americans and Chinese for pushing for peaceful unification with the North. Park's assassination in 1979 ensured that attempts to negotiate with Kim never bore fruit.
As the leader of the conservative-leaning Saenuri Party, Park Geun-hye's visit to Beijing despite rumored diplomatic pressure from the United States received a warm response from China. This move ended the traditional hostility between Park's family and the Communist Party of China going back to World War II. However, it was not pleasant for Kim Jong-un to see his country's traditional ally forming friendly relations with the South while his regime remains isolated and Beijing declares its opposition to the North's nuclear program and rocket tests.
This, some say, is the primary reason Kim is turning his anger on Chinese nationals, according to the paper.
P!
Not that the Chinese want a unified Korea, but Fat Boy Kim is fast becoming a dangerous (nuclear armed) nuisance. The arrest and execution/imprisonment of Chinese nationals is an insult that cannot be ignored without an intolerable loss of face. I foresee a midair engine problem with Kim’s personal transport in the near future.
NK granaries must be in pretty good shape.
This is a stretch. There has been no long-running hostile relationship between Park's family and Chinese communists. At the time, the elder Park was merely a lieutenant, who was a regimental staff officer . After Japanese Empire was gone, it was not his war anymore. It is not like the relationship between Chinese nationalists and Chinese communists.
for pushing for peaceful unification with the North.
There were some talks between two countries. It was a way to cool down the escalating tension. Neither Korea was interested in giving up its own political system for unification.
China is not among nations invited to attend North Korea’s key national anniversary next month, a diplomatic source said Monday, reflecting strained political ties between the allies.
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/news/2015/09/21/0200000000AEN20150921005700315.html
Pigret got his feelings hurt, never a good thing for the peasants and others who get in the way.
***North Korea sent invitations to some nations in Africa and South America,***
Lot of Chinese influence in Africa, that is interesting.
The other day it has been revealed that Chinese rounded up N. Korean agents operating inside Chinese territory. Those agents are there to catch N. Koreans who escaped, or in some cases, S. Korean citizens near the border area. In the past, Chinese looked the other way as long as those agents do not directly harm Chinese interest. Now their patience is wearing thin.
http://world.kbs.co.kr/english/news/news_Po_detail.htm?No=113480
Gov't Not Ready to Confirm Attempted Kidnapping by N. Korean Agents
Write : 2015-09-18 15:21:23 Update : 2015-09-18 15:31:14
The government is trying to confirm a local media report that Chinese security police arrested agents from North Korea’s General Bureau of Reconnaissance that attempted to abduct South Korean nationals in China.
In a Friday briefing, Unification Ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-hee said the ministry is aware of the report.
Earlier a domestic news outlet reported that North Korean agents tasked with assassinations and abductions were arrested by Chinese authorities in March while attempting to kidnap South Koreans in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in China's Jilin Province.
Citing a source in Yanbian, the report said that five to eight North Korean agents were detained in Jilin Province and confessed to Chinese authorities their affiliation, titles and details of their operation.
Their only friend is Russia?
Just like the days before the Korean War.
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