Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08SHENYANG109
2008-08-06 06:13:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Consulate Shenyang
Cable title:  

PRC-DPRK: BORDER-CROSSERS AND THEIR OFFSPRING;

Tags:  PREL PINR PGOV PREF KN CH 
pdf how-to read a cable
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P 060613Z AUG 08
FM AMCONSUL SHENYANG
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8467
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC 0127
RUEKJCS/DIA WASHDC 0093
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 0556
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).

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