EFL, RTWT
Guard duties along China’s increasingly tense border with North Korea have been transferred from the police to the People’s Liberation Army, China’s Foreign Ministry said Monday. The announcement, made in a brief statement faxed to reporters, follows media reports of heavy deployment of Chinese combat units to the border area in northeastern China’s Jilin province. The region has reportedly seen an upsurge in border crossings and crime by impoverished North Koreans and armed North Korean soldiers. The Foreign Ministry statement said it had no information about reports that 150,000 troops had been sent to the border. It said the decision to turn over Kimmiewatch guard duties to the PLA’s border guard unit had been planned years ago and was designed to express Beijing’s displeasure bring the area in line with other parts of China’s land border that are guarded by the military. The Sunday Morning Post newspaper in Hong Kong reported on Sunday that 150,000 troops had been sent to the border region since the middle of last month in a move to stem cross-border gathering crime by North Korean foragers soldiers. |