PRC-DPRK BORDER TIGHTENS PRE-OLYMPICS: DPRK

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 SHENYANG 000103

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/K, EAP/CM, PRM, DRL

C O R R E C T E D C O P Y (TEXT CHANGE PARA 2)

E.O. 12958: DECL: TEN YEARS AFTER KOREAN UNIFICATION
TAGS: PREL PINR PGOV PREF ASEC KN CH
SUBJECT: PRC-DPRK BORDER TIGHTENS PRE-OLYMPICS: DPRK
BORDER-CROSSERS, SECURITY, TOURISM

SHENYANG 00000103 001.2 OF 002


Classified By: CONSUL GENERAL STEPHEN B. WICKMAN.
REASONS: 1.4(b)/(d).


1. (C) SUMMARY: Local officials confirm they have taken
measures to "strengthen control" of the PRC-DPRK border
region during the Olympics. New checkpoints have been
established outside some sensitive border cities. The PRC
"through diplomatic channels" requested that the DPRK stem
border-crossings in August; one border official claimed a
North Korean official assured his Chinese counterpart that
the DPRK will impose harsher punishment for those caught
crossing illegally during the Olympics. Officials
unanimously assert that PRC-DPRK trade will continue as
usual during the Olympics. Some PRC border localities,
however, have suspended cross-border tourism via land ports
during the Olympics in order to minimize foreign tourism in
sensitive areas of the border. END SUMMARY.


2. (C) Poloff traveled July 20-25 to the PRC-DPRK
borderlands of Jilin Province. Sites visited included
Yanji, seat of the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture;
Nanping, across from the DPRK's Musan; Sanhe, near
Hoeryong; Changchun, capital of Jilin Province; Baishan,
which administers PRC land ports leading to Hyesan and
Chunggang; and Ji'an, across from Manp'o.

NEW CHECKPOINTS, ROADBLOCKS AND OLYMPICS SECURITY
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3. (C) With the Olympics drawing near, PRC authorities have
taken a range of measures to further tighten security in
the PRC-DPRK border region stretching from Yanbian south to
Ji'an. Poloff observed new roadblocks and security
checkpoints both along the border and on the outskirts of
gateway cities. In Yanbian, for instance, approximately
ten kilometers outside of both Helong and Longjing--
gateways to Nanping/Musan and Sanhe/Hoeryong, respectively-
-checkpoints manned by Public Security Bureau officers on
July 22 pulled over cars for speeding. Officers also
thoroughly scoured the trunks and interiors of all cars
Poloff saw pulled over. On the road from Longjing south to
the border port of Sanhe, Poloff later the same day
encountered a new camouflage-painted People's Liberation
Army (PLA) checkpoint-trailer manned by armed soldiers.



4. (C) Security proved particularly tight in Ji'an. Ten
kilometers north of the entrance to the city on July 24,
Poloff encountered a major new checkpoint staffed by eight
to ten People's Armed Police (PAP) Border Defense officers,
several armed with machine guns. Officers stopped Poloff's
car, questioned the driver and checked all passengers'
identification before letting the vehicle proceed. Inside
Ji'an July 24-25, red banners exhorted residents to "create
a stable border" for a "safe Olympics." Ji'an border
residents we talked to all spoke of an increased security
presence in the area, remarks echoed throughout the week by
residents elsewhere along the border in Yanbian and
Baishan.

BORDER OPEN DURING OLYMPICS, BUT SOME TOURISM CURTAILED
-------------- --------------


5. (C) Officials from Dandong north to Yanbian dismissed
media reports that PRC-DPRK border bridges are to be closed
during the Olympics. In Yanbian, a senior official in the
prefecture's port authority claimed July 21 that PRC-DPRK
trade in Yanbian will proceed as usual during the Olympics.
Several hundred kilometers south of Yanbian in Baishan,
Foreign Affairs Office (FAO) Director WANG Hongwei
(PROTECT) noted July 24 that the city government has no
plans to disrupt border trade, which will be "normal" in
August. Farther south in the strategic trading
thoroughfare of Dandong, trade will also continue during
the Olympics, YANG Wenjia (PROTECT),Chief of the Foreign
Trade Administration Section of the city's Foreign Trade
and Economic Cooperation Bureau told Poloff in Shenyang,
July 18.


6. (C) Some PRC border localities have suspended cross-

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border tourism via land ports during the Olympics. DING
Pengjiang (PROTECT),Director of Baishan's Tourism Bureau,
told Poloff privately July 24 that Baishan has stopped all
cross-border tourism within Baishan's jurisdiction--
including for local Chinese--because of the Olympics. A
new airport scheduled for an early August opening in nearby
Changbai, on the border close to the popular tourist
attraction of Mt. Changbai, will only accept limited
"charter flights" during the Olympics because Baishan is
seeking to minimize foreign tourists in this sensitive
area, Ding explained. South of Baishan in Ji'an, tour
operators noted July 25 that cross-border tourism there had
been suspended for the past year and would remain so for
the foreseeable future. By contrast, a tour operator in
Dandong reached by phone later the same day claimed that he
could arrange cross-border tours to Sinuiju (in North
Korea) during the Olympics for Chinese, but not for
foreigners.

NK BORDER-CROSSERS, REPATRIATIONS AND OLYMPICS SECURITY
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7. (C) Officials in Baishan confirmed that security forces
have enhanced border security in part to deter North Korean
border-crossings. FAO Deputy Director LIU Fulin (PROTECT)
told Poloff July 24 that both the PRC and DPRK sides of the
border have recently taken measures to "strengthen control"
(jiaqiang guanli) of the border. Director Wang Hongwei
claimed that the PRC "through diplomatic channels"
requested that the DPRK pay particular attention to
stemming border-crossings during the Olympics. Wang
claimed the North Korean side assured Chinese counterparts
that it would mete out more severe penalties for those
caught crossing the border during the Olympics. Liu Fulin
noted that Baishan will continue to repatriate any North
Korean nabbed during the Olympics.


8. (SBU) Local PRC media and government reports throughout
June publicized an ongoing 100-day campaign in Jilin
Province to combat cross-border drug trafficking, alien
smuggling and "illegal activities" in a bid to create a
"stable border" and "safe Olympics." (NOTE: This is
nominally part of an annual anti-drug campaign which this
year has been intensified as a result of the Olympics. END
NOTE.) Official reports have hailed statistics of drugs
seized and alien-smuggling "snakeheads" nabbed, and also
pointed to more robust force deployments in the border
region, new "secret (roadside) checkpoints" and increasing
intelligence collection. A June 5 online report by the
Yanbian Public Security Bureau described house-to-house
searches in Wangqing, northeast of Yanji, in order to
create a "safe Olympics" as early as May. During searches,
local police discovered two North Korean border-crossers,
subsequently repatriated to the DPRK, according to the
report.
SWICKMAN