North Korea soldiers chase defectors into China to kill
By IANSWednesday, January 12, 2011
LONDON - In a rare cross-border pursuit, North Korean troops chased their seven defectors into China and shot five of them dead, the Daily Mail reported here.
According to South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo, five were shot dead by North Korean border guards and two were wounded and taken back to North Korea.
The North Korean soldiers had never before shot at defectors once they had reached the Chinese side of the border, the paper said, adding that guards could have been issued with new instructions for dealing with defectors.
All the seven defectors had left Hyesan in Yanggang province and walked across the frozen Yalu river and reached the Chinese side Dec 14, the South Korean daily quoted a source in Changbai in the Chinese province of Jilin as saying.
The Sino-Korean border, in China’s northeast, is quiet and fairly porous, with a steady flow of refugees and traders coming over to escape food shortages or profit from them.
Beijing tolerates the cross-border traffic in part because it is fearful that a collapse of the regime would turn that trickle into a flood, and could one day mean South Korean or even US troops stationed on its border.
It also provides support, including grains and energy, for the North Korean leadership.
China fought alongside North Korea against the US and the South during the 1950-53 Korean War.
