http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/asia/story/0,4386,278118,00.html
China sends more troops to N. Korea border 10/15
WASHINGTON - China has dispatched thousands of additional soldiers to its border region with North Korea, prompting an alert among intelligence officials in South Korea and the United States, says a diplomatic source here.
'Based on the US satellite photos and South Korea's human intelligence, the two countries concluded that China has recently deployed 10,000 elite troops to the North Korean border,' the source in Washington was quoted by South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo as saying yesterday.
Last Saturday, Japan's Sankei Shimbun newspaper also reported that China had sent 10,000 troops earlier this month to three border areas along the Tumen River, running between China and North Korea.
The Washington source said: 'China already has two divisions of troops guarding the border. Seoul and Washington are now analysing why China had to send another division of its best-trained troops to the area.'
China reportedly already has some 150,000 People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops stationed along its 1,400km border with North Korea, with which it signed a Border Cooperation Agreement in June.
In response, Beijing confirmed on Tuesday that it had deployed troops to the border, but denied media speculation that the move was aimed at stopping North Koreans from defecting or in protest against Pyongyang's continuing nuclear arms development.
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http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/111509/1/.html
(snipped)
Time is GMT + 8 hours
Posted: 13 October 2004 1701 hrs
SKorean navy stages secret hunt for NKorean submarines
SEOUL : South Korean navy ships launched a massive operation this week off the east coast to search for North Korean submarines, military officials said.
The operation began on Sunday after intelligence was received that two suspected North Korean submarines were sailing in the area, the defense ministry said. . . .
In 1996, a North Korean submarine ran aground on South Korea's east coast with 26 North Korean commandos and crew on board, triggering a massive two-month manhunt.
All but two of the intruders were either killed by South Korean troops or their colleagues. Eleven 11 South Korean soldiers, two police officers and two civilians also died.
In an incident unrelated to the submarine hunt, the defense ministry said four South Korean navy crewmen were missing after their boat capsized off the southeastern port of Ulsan late Tuesday following a routine naval exercise.
"It was not linked to the search for North Korean submarines. The vessel had been mobilized for a regular and routine exercise," a ministry official told AFP.
- AFP
http://english.yna.co.kr/Engnews/20041007/300200000020041007192304E0.html
2004/10/07 19:28 KST
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South Korea Seizes Three Chinese Fishing Boats in its EEZ
MOKPO, Oct. 7 (Yonhap) -- Three Chinese fishing boats were seized Thursday for violating South Korea's western territorial waters, local police said.
Mokpo Maritime Police Agency said it seized the three ships, including a 43-ton Chinese fishing vessel, and detained several sailors on board for illegally operating inside South Korea's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) on Thursday afternoon.
http://english.yna.co.kr/Engnews/20041006/301100000020041006112021E7.html
2004/10/06 11:20 KST
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More Chinese Fishing in South Korean Waters, Military Says
SEOUL, Oct. 6 (Yonhap) -- A growing number of Chinese fishing boats are sneaking into South Korean waters near the border with North Korea, taking advantage of the military confrontation between the Koreas, a military agency said Wednesday in a document prepared for a parliamentary audit.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff, an operational command of combat units, said the number of Chinese boats catching fish in South Korean territory has increased more than seven times during the past two years. About 3,000 boats were noticed in 2002 and last year, 23,000. As of the end of September this year, 11,000 cases were found.
http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=7&id=314638
China reportedly moves over 30,000 troops near N Korean border
Thursday, October 7, 2004 at 10:45 JST
TOKYO — China's People's Liberation Army moved more than 30,000 troops to areas along the Yalu River, which serves as the country's border with North Korea, earlier this month, the Sankei Shimbun said Thursday, quoting a source close to Japanese and Chinese relations.
The source was quoted as saying the move is a prelude to a major drill or an arrangement to stem the inflow of a rising number of North Koreans at the border, according to the newspaper. (Kyodo News)
http://www.straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/asia/story/0,4386,276340,00.html
OCT 6, 2004
China could get drawn into war on Korean peninsula
SEOUL - South Korea's military authorities said yesterday they expected that China would be drawn inevitably into any war on the Korean peninsula because of a mutual assistance treaty with North Korea.
'China is expected to provide limited military support to North Korea, according to a provision of the mutual assistance treaty stipulating automatic engagement,' Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) Chairman Kim Jong Hwan told a parliamentary hearing.
China would deploy some 400,000 troops in support of North Korea in case of war with South Korea, which would be backed by its ally the United States, according to JCS data provided to the hearing.
China's support would include 800 planes and 150 navy vessels, the JCS data said.
The South Korea-US combined troops would number 720,000, while North Korea's regular 1.17-million-men military would be reinforced with 6.34 million reserve forces, according to the data.
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/09/26/MNGG08TQV31.DTL
China out to regain Middle Kingdom honors Dispute with South Korea over who controlled ancient region
- Edward Cody, Washington Post
Sunday, September 26, 2004
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Beijing -- With diplomats jetting off for marathon negotiations and editorial writers fulminating about national honor, a recent quarrel between China and South Korea had all the trappings of a modern diplomatic crisis. Except for one thing: The dispute was over a kingdom last heard from in A.D. 668.
Chinese researchers participating in a government-funded project on ancient societies in northern China had concluded that Goguryeo, in its early manifestations at least, was under Chinese dominion. Korean scholars insisted that, from beginning to end, Goguryeo was 100 percent Korean. When the Chinese Foreign Ministry, heeding its own scholars, eliminated the Korean version of history from its official Web site last April, things got serious.
The noisy clash was finally papered over last month in a five-point accord reached in Seoul after protracted discussions between Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Wu Dawei and senior officials in the South Korean Foreign Ministry. Both countries pledged to get along better. But they left the main question unresolved: Was the kingdom, which spanned the current China-North Korea border for about 700 years, Chinese or Korean? . . .
Korean commentators, for instance, warned that the real reason for the Goguryeo spat was a desire by Chinese officials to cast doubt on the present border in case North Korea falls apart suddenly and destabilizes the area. Beijing-based analysts suggested Chinese officials wanted to make ethnic minorities, such as the restive populations of Tibet and Xingjiang, feel more comfortable with Chinese rule by stressing that they've always been part of the nation.
http://english.yna.co.kr/Engnews/20040914/320000000020040914102158E5.html
2004/09/14 10:20 KST
'Koguryo Was Sovereign State': North Korean Media
SEOUL, Sept. 14 (Yonhap) -- North Korea again indirectly criticized China on Tuesday for its claims over the domination of Koguryo, saying it was an independent ancient kingdom of Korea.
"Koguryo had firmly preserved its national independence in its external relations and shattered any attempt to violate that independence," the (North) Korean Central Broadcasting Station (KCBS) said.
"Koguryo was a stately sovereign state, not an ethnic minority or provincial government or a tributary of any state power," it said, without mentioning China or details of the recent history dispute between China and South Korea.
Koguryo was a kingdom that stretched from the upper Korean
Peninsula into what is today Manchuria in China between 37 B.C.
and 668 A.D.
Koreans have no doubt that the kingdom is part of their
history, but some Chinese scholars have recently laid claim to the
kingdoms, arguing that it was a regional kingdom subject to
China. The Chinese government supported that view after rejecting
South Korean protests.
This was the latest in a series of North Korean news media
reports on Koguryo and its successor Balhae. The North recently increased the volume of such reports in an apparent protest against what it sees as China's attempt to distort early Korean history. However, it refrained from directly criticizing its staunch ally.
Among the reasons for contradicting China's claims, KCBS cited the Great Wall of China built during the Qing Dynasty (221 B.C-206 B.C). "This proves that Koguryo was an independent country that had posed a grave threat to China from the beginning," it claimed.
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Here's the live story on the AQ operative in NJ. Interesting.
http://wnbc.feedroom.com/iframeset.jsp?ord=487906
Sounds as if NK is about ready for some action. Chinese backing them up AND protecting their border.
Very Interesting. North Korea seems intent on pissing everybody in the area off.
I think a problem we are overlooking is the possibility of the Chinese seriously considering regime change in North Korea.
It would have the effect of removing a viable threat to the peace and economies of the region 7 china itself and would allow China to put in a more reliable and stable puppet government for their own interests. Odd that China is now as much a capitalist in many ways, as it is communist - though I would never make the mistake of calling them a free market society, just a bunch of communist with capitalist tendencies.
This would do two very important things for Beijing (if they were to pull it off). One, they would gain greater standing in the region as the superpower capable of keeping the peace in Asia. Second, they would give Taipei a reason to rethink they're 'independence' tendencies. Though in all put name only Taiwan is independent, just don't tell the Chinese that.