PRC-DPRK: BORDER-CROSSERS, RELIGIOUS TROUBLES,

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 SHENYANG 000071

SIPDIS

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

E.O. 12958: DECL: TEN YEARS AFTER KOREAN UNIFICATION
TAGS: PREL PINR PGOV PREF PHUM KIRF KN KS CH
SUBJECT: PRC-DPRK: BORDER-CROSSERS, RELIGIOUS TROUBLES,
PUST, TRADE AND UNSCR 1718 ENFORCEMENT

REF: A. (A) SHENYANG 67

B. (B) SHENYANG 68

C. (C) SHENYANG 13

D. (D) 07 SHENYANG 216

E. (E) SHENYANG 37

Classified By: ACTING CONSUL GENERAL ROBERT DEWITT.
REASONS: 1.4(b)/(d).


1. (C) SUMMARY: The PRC appears to have tightened internal
security in the PRC-DPRK borderlands in recent months,
though border-crossers continue to trickle into China.
Border residents report increased official scrutiny of some
religious activities. Yanji officials warned religious
leaders that they will be "held responsible for what they
say" if interviewed during the Olympics by visiting
journalists. Continuing delays have again postponed the
opening of Pyongyang's first private university until fall

2008. A brief spat, perhaps related to food-safety issues,
caused DPRK authorities to temporarily disallow certain PRC
food exports into Sinuiju earlier this year. Recently
enacted PRC regulations encouraging the use of the
renminbi, and Chinese banks, for border-trade settlement
are having only a minimal impact on PRC-DPRK trade.
Chinese contacts dispute interpretations that the measures
represent a "loosening" of PRC enforcement of UN Security
Council Resolution 1718. END SUMMARY.


2. (C) Poloff traveled May 12-16 to Jilin Province and the
northern end of the PRC-DPRK borderlands. Sites visited
included Changchun, capital of Jilin Province; Yanji, seat
of the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture; Tumen,
opposite the DPRK's Namyang; and Hunchun, near China's land
gateway to Rajin-Sonbong (Rason). This is the third in a
multi-part snapshot of the PRC-DPRK border in April/May

2008. Part I (ref A) focused on surging prices in North
Korea and squeezed aid groups there; part II (ref B)
examined DPRK food troubles and PRC/DPRK responses.

THE BORDER TIGHTENS: ANECDOTAL OBSERVATIONS
--------------

3. (C) Empirical observation and discussions with contacts
in Liaoning and Jilin provinces suggest that the PRC has
started tightening internal security in the PRC-DPRK
borderlands in recent months. Both WU Jianhua (STRICTLY
PROTECT) and LU Chao (STRICTLY PROTECT),specialists on
North Korea and PRC-DPRK border issues at the Liaoning
Academy of Social Sciences (LASS),told Poloff in separate
meetings April 28 that concerns about the Beijing Olympics
have been the most important driver of the security ramp-
up. Both, however, declined to elaborate on specifics.


4. (C) Internal security, and scrutiny of local Chinese and
foreigners alike, appears to have increased considerably in
Yanbian. Pastor Jin (STRICTLY PROTECT) of the Ping'an
Church, on the outskirts of Yanji, noted May 14 that he
started observing a growing security presence in the Yanji
area beginning "in February or March." Manifestations, he
said, included a far more visible presence of Public
Security Bureau (PSB) officers and patrols in the city, as
well as increased police scrutiny of his congregation.
Northeast of Yanji in Tumen, a longtime Western resident of
the border city reported May 14 that Tumen police
noticeably increased their vigilance in the area during the
same time period. Examples, he said, included sudden
inspections by police of foreigners' homes, residency
papers and in some cases workplaces, as well as increased
scrutiny of the city's foreigner-only church (e.g., police
questioning foreign visitors at length, expressing concern
about church activities). Still farther east in Hunchun,
near both the Sino-Russian and PRC-DPRK borders, a Western
resident May 16 spoke of similar security developments.


5. (C) Anecdotally, Poloff in Tumen on May 14 and May 16
found the most visible security presence--including several
teams of foot-patrols, as well as PSB vehicles trolling the
streets--he had observed over eighteen months of visits to
the city. Back in Yanji, the city's usually-lax internet

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cafes began strictly enforcing new regulations requiring
that they swipe the machine-readable identification cards
that all users must now present in order to access
computers at internet cafes. Staff at several
establishments told Poloff the regulations took effect the
week of May 12, but they were unclear on the reasons why.

NORTH KOREAN BORDER-CROSSERS: ANECODTAL REPORTS
-------------- --

6. (C) Border contacts reported that North Korean border-
crossers continue to trickle into Yanbian. In Yanji, for
instance, Father Lian--an ethnic Korean detained by Chinese
police in 2001 for assisting North Koreans--reported that
"only three or four" border-crossers each month arrived at
his church this year. Pastor Jin of the Ping'an Church, an
ethnic Korean who himself for many years sheltered North
Korean border-crossers, reported even fewer arrivals. He
received one border-crosser to date this year--in March; he
fed and offered the North Korea money, but advised him to
exit Yanji with haste explaining that it was unsafe.
Elsewhere on the outskirts of Yanji, a Western
administrator involved in the Yanbian University of Science
and Technology's quiet aid to border-crossers reported May
15 that arrivals continued, but declined to comment on
specific numbers. Farther afield in Tumen, a longtime
Western resident of the city told Poloff May 14 that
compared to recent years, he heard of "fewer" vanloads of
North Koreans being repatriated via Tumen Land Port. Back
in Shenyang, the Japanese Consulate still shelters eight
North Korean border-crossers. Diplomats there told Poloff
May 19 that four recently received PRC exit permission; the
remainder awaits word from Beijing.


7. (C) LASS' Lu Chao--a longtime post contact and IVLP
grantee who researches North Korean border-crosser issues
for the Liaoning provincial government--claimed April 28
that earlier in the month in Jilin Province, he interviewed
a North Korean border-crosser from northestern North
Hamgyong Province. The North Korean, who frequently
crossed the border to trade scrap metal for Chinese food,
reported little difficulty in crossing the border, noting
that both the Chinese and North Korean border controls were
no stricter than before, related Lu. The North Korean told
Lu that his home province did not face difficulties like
those now encountered by South Hwanghae and other provinces
hit by floods last year. The border-crosser detected no
substantial change in fellow border-crossers, at least from
his hometown--never specified--and environs, as a result of
food-supply difficulties, added Lu.

YOU "WILL BE HELD RESPONSIBLE" FOR WHAT YOU SAY
-------------- --

8. (C) Concerns about the Olympics, in addition to recent
events in Tibet, have heightened the "sensitivity" of
religious issues in Yanji, according to several religious
leaders in Yanbian's government seat. Local Religious
Affairs Bureau (RAB) officials in March called a special
meeting--in conjunction with a pre-scheduled fire
inspection--of all religious leaders to discuss Olympics-
related issues, recalled the Ping'an Church's Pastor Jin.
RAB officials bluntly instructed their audience to put
forward a "positive" image of China during the Olympic
period, warning that any interviewees would be "held
responsible for what they said" when/if interviewed by
visiting foreign journalists, related Pastor Jin. Father
Lian Changyuan (STRICLTY PROTECT) of Yanji's official
Catholic Church confirmed this meeting and the content of
RAB officials' warnings on the Olympics, adding that he had
been required to attend "two or three" such Olympics-
related meetings since February. Lian claimed May 15 that
he openly challenged RAB officials at the meetings--arguing
that China ought to embrace more openness. He said he
received no meaningful response from RAB officials, but did
not experience any subsequent problems either.

YANJI HOUSE-CHURCH LEADER'S TROUBLES
--------------

9. (C) Religious contacts shed some light on a May 8

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report, by the Texas-based China Aid Association, that PSB
officers in Yanbian on May 4 assaulted HAO Yuji, a house-
church "pastor" in Yanji. The Catholic Church's Father
Lian told Poloff he "heard through friends" that police
confronted Hao and demanded she dissolve her congregation.
He could not confirm specifically whether Hao was beaten,
as claimed by the China Aid Association and Hao herself.
(Hao on May 23, by way of a Chinese-language article on
Boxun.com--a website run by overseas Chinese--claimed Yanji
police beat her while they detained her on May 4. Hao
claimed she was released later that same day, and that
police subsequently outlawed her congregation and ordered
her to cease proselytizing.) According to Father Lian, Hao
is said to have drawn police attention in part because of
her involvement with a South Korea congregation with
politically sensitive (i.e., irredentist) views vis-Q-vis
northeast China. It was this political angle, as well as
foreigners allegedly proselytizing to Hao's Chinese
congregants, that upset police, claimed Father Lian. The
Ping'an Church's Pastor Jin, by contrast, knew of Hao but
had not heard of the May 4 incident. He reflected
generally that "these sorts of incidents still occasionally
happen," although religious freedom in Yanbian had, on
balance, improved in recent years (see, for instance, ref
C).

PYONGYANG'S PRIVATE UNIVERSITY: DELAYED AGAIN
--------------

10. (C) The official opening of the Pyongyang University of
Science and Technology (PUST) has been pushed back yet
again, until fall 2008, due to continuing delays. PUST's
Yanji-based Amcit project manager told Poloff March 14 that
a formal response from the Department of Commerce on export
permissions for computers, laboratory equipment and other
technology destined for PUST's classrooms is still pending.
Campus construction is now "nearly complete," though the
North Korean Ministry of Education has yet to give PUST
final approval for opening. The Yanbian University of
Science and Technology, from which the PUST project is
being coordinated (see ref D and previous for background),
already assembled enough international teachers--American,
South Korean and others--to staff the program's first year,
but has yet to submit the list to North Korean officials
for approval.

PRC-DPRK TRADE DUST-UP IN DANDONG/SINUIJU?
--------------

11. (C) A brief spat, supposedly related to food-safety
issues, temporarily halted certain PRC food exports to the
DPRK via Dandong earlier this year, according to Shenyang-
based Korea specialists and business contacts involved in
cross-border trade. Exact details remain sketchy, but most
versions of the story hold that North Korea in February
suddenly imposed new regulations obligating certain PRC
food exports products (e.g., instant noodles) to carry
certifications indicating that they met unspecified
"international food-safety standards," contacts said.
LASS' Lu Chao claimed Chinese shipments sat for a number of
days in Dandong until the North Korean side finally
relented. Lu explained to Poloff that he learned of the
incident from a Dandong shipper-friend whose North Korean
partners eventually phoned several days later and informed
him that shipments could be accepted-provided they
contained any sort of certification sticker. Lu's shipper-
friend quickly commissioned fake certification stickers in
Dandong and shipped the products over to Sinuiju, along
with payments for North Korean customs officials to
facilitate the shipment, said Lu.


12. (C) LIU Chensheng (STRICTLY PROTECT),a trade official-
turned-businessman who facilitates PRC investment in North
Korea via the Liaoning Civilian Entrepreneur Association's
Korean Liaison Office, confirmed the dispute April 29. He
claimed the row originated when poor-quality Chinese
cookies exported to the DPRK caused serious illness in
consumers, causing the DPRK to stop exports in protest.
Liu ascribed the blame to unscrupulous "southern Chinese
firms." Lu Chao, by contrast, remained unclear on the

SHENYANG 00000071 004 OF 004


reason, but speculated corrupt North Koreans seeking easy
money may have been a reason.

IMPACT OF NEW TRADE-SETTLEMENT REGULATIONS
--------------

13. (C) PRC regulations enacted earlier this year
encouraging the use of the renminbi (RMB) and Chinese banks
for border-trade settlement (ref E) are having a minimal
impact on PRC-DPRK trade, contacts say. Officials in Yanji
and Tumen generally cited increased convenience--and
decreased transaction costs--for Chinese traders as the
primary impact of the changes. LIU Chensheng, the trade
PRC-DPRK facilitator based in Shenyang, sounded a less
sunny note. All of his Chinese investment ventures in
North Korea are financed in cash, regardless of size;
despite the changes, large contracts remain denominated in
U.S. dollars, though some smaller projects are now being
denominated in RMB because of the Chinese currency's
appreciation, Liu said. Asked for his reaction to official
claims that the new regulations will "standardize" PRC-DPRK
trade, Liu argued that because of its often-informal
nature, border trade simply "cannot be controlled or
standardized." The regulations, he argued, will have little
impact on the ground.


14. (C) Foreign and Chinese contacts alike took issue with
Japanese press reports interpreting the new trade-
settlement regulations as a "loosening" of the PRC's
enforcement of UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1718.
Japanese diplomats in Shenyang reporting on border issues,
for instance, assessed May 19 that the regulations are
largely aimed at stimulating more border trade and do not
necessarily indicate a slackening of UNSCR 1718
enforcement. ZHANG Yushan (STRICLTY PROTECT),a specialist
on the DPRK economy at the Jilin Academy of Social Sciences
(JASS) in Changchun, argued May 12 that the measures had no
bearing on the PRC's enforcement of UNSCR 1718. Rather,
the measures--sought by both sides, he said--are meant to
legalize use of the RMB for trade-settlement purposes.
Ultimately, the hope is that they will offer traders more
convenience; "standardize" PRC-DPRK trade; and, to a very
limited extent, help reduce Beijing's trade deficit with
Pyongyang, said Zhang. Queried about the timing of these
measures, both he and his colleague, the respected Korea
expert CHEN Longshan (STRICTLY PROTECT),cautioned against
reading anything into this.
DEWITT