By Kim Young-jin
Seemingly divergent moves on North Korea show China seeking to leverage its influence on North Korea, analysts said Monday.
Beijing has embarked on a five-month crackdown on illegal immigrants in its northeast region bordering North Korea, a common route for defections from the Stalinist state.
The analysts say the crackdown is aimed at preventing North Korean defectors from crossing the borders, helping stabilize the North amid a leadership transfer.
China has exerted heavy pressure on Pyongyang to halt its provocations such as its reported bid for a third nuclear test, following its failed April 13 rocket launch.
“Beijing can decide whether to crack down on the defections, depending on its strategic interest,” Yoo Ho-yeol, an international relations expert at Korea University, said. “It is sending the message that if the new North Korean leadership doesn’t heed advice over its provocations, Beijing has options to exercise that power.”
Despite reports of increasing frustration over the North’s recalcitrance, China remains the isolated state’s main ally and has in recent years stepped up bilateral relations, especially in trade, in a bid to maintain stability.
After the death of despot Kim Jong-il last year, the sides reportedly implemented a withering crackdown along the border to reduce defections, fearing that mass escapes could jeopardize new leader Kim Jong-un.
In what is seen as a continued understanding that China will work for North Korean security, its state media last week announced a crackdown in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture through October 15.
Human rights advocates have expressed concern over the move as repatriated North Koreans face harsh punishment reportedly including torture and death. Some 10,000 North Korean refugees are estimated to be living in Yanbian.
But China began hardening its tone in the run up to the rocket launch, saying Pyongyang should spend such funds on improving the lot of its people instead. It backed a U.N. Security Council statement expanding sanctions for the move, considered a test of ballistic missile technology.
Last week, Chinese news agency Xinhua rapidly reported that Pyongyang had no intention of carrying out a third nuclear test, citing a report by the North’s media that prompted wide interpretation. The dispatch showed the sides had vigorously exchanged views on the matter, professor Yoo said.
Meanwhile, one longtime human rights activist said it was too early to decipher Beijing’s intentions with the border lockdown, as authorities have made such moves in the past to get control over North Korean guards operating across the border. “In the big picture of domestic affairs, the refugees are not that big for China,” he said.