It just seems to me there has to be more to this story for this North Korean soldier to kill four elderly Chinese citizens simply because he was hungry:
Photo taken on December 16, 2013 shows North Korean soldiers standing guard on the banks of the Yalu River which separates the North Korean town of Sinuiju from the Chinese border town of Dandong (AFP Photo/Mark Ralston)
A North Korean believed to be a runaway soldier killed four Chinese citizens during a robbery after he crossed the border into China in search of food, media reports said Monday.
The young North Korean soldier crossed the border in late December and stole money and food at a house before killing four residents in China’s northeastern city of Helong, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency and Dong-A Ilbo newspaper said.
Both cited sources in the border areas between China and the North.
The victims were either shot dead or beaten to death, Dong-A said, adding he was later shot and captured by Chinese authorities.
“Killing several Chinese nationals… is a major crime, so there are good possibilities that China, unlike other runaway North Korean soldiers captured before, will not hand him over to the North,” said an unnamed Seoul official quoted by Yonhap. [AFP via reader tip]
You can read more at the link, but according to the article residents in the area say that North Korean soldiers crossing the border in search of food is a common occurrence.
Via One Free Korea comes this Yonhap article that explains how missile defense is one area the US can use to pressure China to reign in North Korean provocations:
The deployment of ballistic missile defense systems around North Korea by the United States and its allies could be an effective way to change China’s strategic thinking about Pyongyang, a U.S. congressional report said.
The Congressional Research Service made the point in a recent report, “North Korea: U.S. Relations, Nuclear Diplomacy, and Internal Situation,” saying Beijing would find it not in its national interest if provocative actions by the North lead to increased military deployments in the region.
When North Korea fired a long-range rocket in April 2012, a key focus of Chinese media coverage of the case was Patriot missile deployments that were made by the U.S. and its allies in response to the North’s launch, the report noted.
A subtext of those reports was that the North’s actions are feeding military developments that are not in China’s interests, it said.
“As part of the efforts by the United States and its allies to change China’s strategic thinking about North Korea, the BMD (ballistic missile defense) deployments may have an impact,” the report said. “Many observers, particularly in the United States and Japan, argue that continued North Korean ballistic missile development increases the need to bolster regional BMD capabilities and cooperation.” [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link as well as over at One Free Korea who also believes that South Korea and Japan should also move towards developing their own nuclear arsenals to further pressure China.
Shown is the military headquarters of the Korean exiled government in the western Chinese city of Chongqing during the Japanese colonial rule of Korea in the early part of the 20th century. The Chinese government said on Dec. 19, 2014, it had decided to preserve the building as a historic site. (Yonhap)
Reading between the lines here this Chinese General appears to be signaling to the North Koreans that they will not save the Kim regime if they do something foolish like start a war. However, I see nothing in here that says they will not get involved to stabilize a post-Kim regime North Korea after they do something foolish:
China would not help save North Korea even if the neighboring North’s regime collapses, a former general of China’s military said Tuesday, in rare explicit comments that possibly reflect Beijing’s growing frustration with its unpredictable ally.
“China is not a savior,” Wang Hongguang, former deputy commander of the Nanjing military region of the People’s Liberation Army, wrote in an op-ed published by the Global Times newspaper, which has close ties with China’s ruling Communist Party.
“If North Korea really collapses, even China can’t save it,” Wang said.
The comments by Wang were in response to a recent contribution by another Chinese expert, who urged Beijing not to “abandon” North Korea. [Yonhap]
Here is more of what Wang had to say from the South China Morning Post:
Wang said China would not get involved in any new war on the Korean peninsula.
“China cannot influence the situation on the Korean peninsula … China has no need to light a fire and get burnt. Whoever provokes a conflagration bears responsibility,” he wrote. “Now there is no more ’socialist camp’. It is not necessary for China’s younger generation to fight a war for another country.”
Wang criticised the North for its nuclear development, using it as an example of how the country’s interests can differ from China’s and saying it had “already brought about the serious threat of nuclear contamination in China’s border area”.
But he also slammed Western countries for “demonising” North Korea and interfering in its internal affairs in the name of human rights. “China absolutely does not meddle,” he wrote.
Beijing will “support what should be supported and oppose what should be opposed” regarding the North, Wang said, indicating that China was not ready to completely give up on its troublesome neighbour.
China will neither “court” nor “abandon” North Korea, he wrote. “This should be China’s basic attitude.” [South China Morning Post]
