PRC-DPRK: BORDER-CROSSERS AND THEIR OFFSPRING;

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 SHENYANG 000109 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/K, EAP/CM, PRM, DRL E.O. 12958: DECL: TEN YEARS AFTER KOREAN UNIFICATION TAGS: PREL PINR PGOV PREF KN CH SUBJECT: PRC-DPRK: BORDER-CROSSERS AND THEIR OFFSPRING; TRADE ISSUES; PRC GRAIN EXPORTS AND SMUGGLING REF: A. (A) SHENYANG 103 ¶B. (B) SHENYANG 7 Classified By: CONSUL GENERAL STEPHEN B. WICKMAN. REASONS: 1.4(b)/(d). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: Contacts along the PRC-DPRK border report smaller-than-usual numbers of North Korean border-crossers this summer. Civil Affairs officials in one key border city screen detained border-crossers for infectious diseases and arrange for medical care pending repatriation. Children born to female border-crossers and Chinese fathers represent a delicate challenge, but officials in the same city claim they can discreetly provide education and other assistance to those without official residence permits. The PRC recently prohibited most Chinese railcars from transporting commodities into the DPRK, a response to a dispute that one official says will increase costs and inconvenience for both sides. PRC grain-export restrictions have brought DPRK-bound commercial grain shipments via Dandong to a standstill for months now. Illegal grain smuggling is prevalent near Dandong, but the value of smuggled goods in most cases is minor. 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. NORTH KOREAN BORDER-CROSSERS: YANBIAN TO JI'AN -------------- - ¶3. (C) Most contacts and border residents from Yanbian south to Ji'an reported smaller-than-usual numbers of border-crossers entering their residential areas this summer. In Yanbian, "very few" have come across these days to seek assistance in the sizeable ethnic-Korean religious communities of Helong and Longjing, according to Father ZHAO Guangze (PROTECT),an ethnic Korean priest who splits his time between Catholic parishes in both cities. During a June 13 visit to Shenyang Father Zhao, who has assisted border-crossers in the past, ascribed this to tighter PRC and DPRK border controls and local governments frowning on aiding border-crossers. Elsewhere in Yanbian, a staffer at the Baishan Church--a mostly ethnic Korean congregation that is one of Yanji's largest--told us July 21 that "one or two" North Koreans had come this summer in search of food and money. The church's ongoing assistance to North Koreans has piqued the ire of the Yanbian authorities, leading them to withhold official certification of one leader as a pastor, added the staffer. ¶4. (C) Outside of Yanbian in Baishan July 23-24, Foreign Affairs Office and Civil Affairs Bureau officials described a downturn in arrivals resulting from an Olympics-driven border tightening by both the PRC and DRPK (ref A). Farther south in Ji'an, a number of border residents living by the banks of the Yalu River--ethnic Koreans among them-- suggested during informal conversations with Poloff July 24-25 that similar trends prevailed there. Farther in town, Ms. LI (PROTECT) of the Ji'an Christian Church, a protestant Han and ethnic Korean congregation, noted that the church had seen relatively few border-crossers over the past several months. Church staff there continue to give money and food to those seeking assistance, but no longer inquire about nationality in a bid to maintain plausible deniability, Li explained. OFFICIAL ON BORDER-CROSSERS, THEIR MIXED OFFSPRING -------------- -------------- ¶5. (C) An official in Baishan, which supervises a key stretch of the PRC-DPRK borderlands that includes Changbai and Linjiang, shed some light on the local government's handling of apprehended border-crossers. During a private discussion July 24, Civil Affairs Bureau Director CHEN Anliang (PROTECT) explained that his office is occasionally--but not always--called on to help security officials tend to the detainees while they are being "investigated" pending repatriation. Baishan Civil Affairs' involvement centers on screening border-crossers for infectious diseases, arranging medical care and SHENYANG 00000109 002 OF 003 supplying food, he claimed. Chen did not offer specifics on repatriation procedures, noting only that the North Koreans are repatriated once the security investigation has ended. ¶6. (C) Queried on Baishan's handling of children born to PRC fathers and female North Korean border-crossers that have been repatriated, Chen acknowledged that this has been a delicate challenge. The Baishan Civil Affairs Bureau does not have the authority to grant these children a household registration permit; the Public Security Bureau (PSB),he said, has the sole discretion to do so. (Note: the household registration permit, or "hukou," is a requirement for access to critical social services, including education.) Chen suggested, however, that the absence of a hukou has not prevented his bureau from extending anti-poverty assistance or arranging entry into orphanages for this demographic. Asked about reports that the hukou-less offspring of Chinese border residents and North Korean mothers are unable to enroll in school, Chen claimed that Civil Affairs is able to find a way to finesse the problem in Baishan for children of school age. The only details he offered were that such cases within Baishan's jurisdiction tend to be more prevalent in rural areas. PRC-DPRK TRADE PORTS: A SITREP -------------- ¶7. (C) NANPING/MUSAN. Quiet prevailed on both sides of the cross-border bridge during a July 22 visit to Nanping Land Port, across from one of Asia's largest iron-ore mines. The morning rush of PRC trucks returning from Musan had subsided by the time Poloff reached the port; none crossed or queued on either side during an observation between 1100 and 1130. On the road from Helong south to Nanping between 1000 and 1100, however, Poloff passed approximately 40 red Yanbian Tianchi Company trucks headed out of Nanping, many brimming with iron ore. Nanping Land Port's infrastructure appeared to have undergone few major upgrades since Poloff's last visit there in January 2008 (ref B). ¶8. (C) SANHE/HOERYONG. Farther north in Yanbian the same day, Poloff found little activity at Sanhe Land Port during an observation between 1345 and 1415. Two Helong Tianchi Logistics Company crossed into the DPRK when the border re- opened at 1400, soon followed by a high school soccer team from Yanji, its bus packed with boxes of liquor and instant noodles. (Before crossing, a coach explained that the team, which travels to the DPRK with some frequency, was headed to Chongjin for a ten-day visit. The food situation there was deteriorating, he added without elaborating.) Two North Koreans loitered in the land port, waiting to return to the DPRK. PRC-DPRK RAIL DISPUTE, GRAIN SHIPMENTS, SMUGGLING -------------- -------------- ¶9. (C) Effective June 20, the PRC Ministry of Railways prohibited, with some exceptions, most Chinese freight railcars from crossing into the DPRK to deliver commodities, according to a June 26 online report by Ji'an Customs. Asked about the reported policy shift in Shenyang on July 18, YANG Wenjia (PROTECT),Chief of the Foreign Trade Administration Section of Dandong's Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Bureau, explained that the DPRK's longstanding inability to return trains "in a timely manner" led to the measure. Yang speculated that the prohibition will, at least for the critical Dandong-Sinuiju route, remain in place for the foreseeable future. He acknowledged the inconvenience, delays and increased costs the policy will bring both sides: most Chinese railcars must now stop at the border, unload and then re-load goods onto North Korean freight cars. Yang grumbled that the North Korean side will somehow manage to pass on the costs, and inconvenience, to Chinese business partners. ¶10. (C) On PRC grain-export restrictions, Yang noted that commercial grain shipments to the DPRK via Dandong have come to a halt for several months now, leading to a sharp decline in bilateral grain trade. Contacts engaged in cross-border trade corroborate this. Private PRC businesses have found it "impossible" to ship grain donations to North Korean partners for the past several months now, according to LIU Chensheng (PROTECT),a well- connected former Shenyang official who now facilitates SHENYANG 00000109 003 OF 003 private PRC investment in North Korea, July 17. The marked drop-off in PRC grain exports notwithstanding, Dandong trade figures for January-May 2008 published in the official Dandong Daily on July 2 indicate no drop-off in the value of overall PRC-DPRK trade. Separate figures for exports to and imports from the DPRK were not given in the report, but the value of total two-way PRC-DPRK trade transiting Dandong in the first five months of the year reportedly rose compared to the same period last year, comprising 82 percent of Dandong's total trade. Farther north in Yanbian, a senior prefectural government official in Yanji noted July 21 that grain-export restrictions have had minimal impact on Yanbian-DPRK trade this year because grain represents a minor part of the prefecture's export mix. ¶11. (C) Recent reports by local governments from Dalian to Yanbian confirm that PRC grain-export restrictions have prompted some illegal PRC grain smuggling to the DPRK. Online reports have trumpeted police busts, but the value of seized grain has--with some exceptions--been minor. Liu Chensheng, who maintains close contacts in the Dandong and Sinuiju trading communities, noted that small-scale grain smuggling "by individuals" is most prevalent in the Dandong area--notably in Donggang (to the south of Dandong) and Kuandian (to its north). Most smugglers are motivated by profit, Liu said. Local police there are not arresting transgressors at present; they are, however, confiscating goods and occasionally levying small fines, he claimed. SWICKMAN