China has upped its pressure on North Korea with crackdowns on North Korean workers in the country in apparent irritation at Pyongyang’s deepening involvement in Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Chinese authorities have restricted the issuance of long-term visas to North Korean nationals and even placed repatriation offices in border areas to systematically send back undocumented North Korean workers.
Multiple sources told the JoongAng Ilbo, an affiliate of the Korea JoongAng Daily, on Tuesday that China has set up a repatriation office in Dandong, Liaoning Province, the largest trade hub between North Korea and China. The purpose of the office is to crack down intensively on North Korean workers without visas or whose visas have expired, quickly sending them back to their home country.
Another source said the Chinese government “has recently prohibited the dispatch of new North Korean resident personnel.”
As a result, Chinese companies that have concluded contracts with North Korea to receive hundreds of workers have yet to get them. North Korean trade offices in China are reportedly unable to receive new officials, so they are sending their existing ones home without receiving replacements.
The crackdowns have gone beyond restricting the dispatch of personnel to limiting the business activities of North Korean nationals residing in China. Recently, China has prohibited the registration of companies by North Korean nationals throughout the country and frozen the bank accounts of existing companies.
In response, North Korean authorities and trading companies are considering moving some of their businesses to Russia, according to sources.
China has also strengthened crackdowns on smuggling into North Korea through customs. According to another North Korean source, Chinese customs have drastically restricted the export of goods to North Korea since November of last year and imposed high tariffs.
In the past, North Korean representatives in China were allowed to bring up to five electronic products on average when returning home. Recently, however, China has banned them from bringing most belongings as crackdowns intensified.
In particular, the customs house in Dandong has temporarily suspended customs clearance of moving packages since late October of last year. “Items that fall under sanctions continue to be found in the belongings of those returning to North Korea,” it explained.
Locally, as Chinese customs crackdowns along the border intensify, more North Koreans seek to return home by air. Rumors are circulating that the North Korean authorities will soon increase the number of flights to and from China.
The crackdowns have hit existing smuggling routes hard.
“Crackdowns have intensified in the Changbai-Hyesan and Linjiang-Zhonggang areas, which are inland trade hubs between North Korea and China, with smugglers being arrested one after another,” said a source. “In Changbai and Linjiang, smuggling vehicles are often seen parked all over the roads because there is no work to do.”
With China no longer ignoring North Korea’s illegal activities and sanctions evasion to intensify legal pressure on the country, the North Korean authorities have reacted with unusual acrimony.
Rumors have recently circulated in Pyongyang that the authorities are cracking down on young women having not only South Korean-style hairstyles but also Chinese-style ones. North Korean trade officials dispatched to China even complain that China is “trying to tame Kim Jong-un” for sending troops to Russia.
Public signs of a rift between North Korea and China have also emerged. The “Year of North Korea-China Friendship” of 2024, marking the 75th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries, ended without a proper closing ceremony.
The commemorative banner that linked to the special page on the anniversary on North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) website was replaced with a banner that emphasized close ties with Russia.
The Chinese General Administration of Customs announced Saturday that trade volume between North Korea and China in 2024 was $2.18 billion, a decrease of nearly 5 percent from the previous year, suggesting that China’s distancing from North Korea has affected the exchange of goods between the two countries.
“This is a move that reflects China’s sense of crisis that North Korea’s dispatch of troops to Russia could ultimately destabilize its own security,” said Lim Eul-chul, a professor at the Institute of Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University. “It may also be evidence that China’s leverage over North Korea has plummeted.”
BY CHUNG YEONG-KYO, LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]
