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North Korean soldiers defect to China fuelling fears of imminent military clash

An upsurge in the number of North Korean soldiers defecting into China fuelled fears of food shortages and an imminent military clash.

By Julian Ryall in Tokyo
Published: 3:41PM BST



North Korean soldiers guard banks of Yalu River near the North Korean town of Sinuiju, opposite the Chinese border city of DandongPhoto: REUTERS

Previously considered to be among the regime's most important assets, the North Korean People's Army has always been well provisioned in order to ensure the troops remain loyal. But a poor harvest and the disastrous revaluation of the North Korean currency in November of last year has worsened the nation's already dire economic straits.

Defectors have claimed that they were required to survive on noodles made of ground corn and that meat or fish were a luxury, a journalist for Japan's Asahi Shimbun reported from the Chinese city of Shenyang. On one stretch of the border, Chinese troops apprehended five North Korean soldiers in May alone.

Prior to the sinking of the South Korean corvette Cheonan in March, allegedly by a torpedo fired from a North Korean submarine, it was rare for troops to be taken into custody on the Chinese side of the Yalu River. The defectors have claimed that senior members of the party and the armed forces were stockpiling provisions, another indication that the regime is steeling itself for a military confrontation.

"In the past there have been cases of North Korean troops crossing the border and plundering Chinese farms for their food, which they then took back to their posts in the North," Kim Sang-hun, a human rights activist in Seoul, told The Daily Telegraph. However, these soldiers chose to return to the North with the supplies.

Robert Dujarric, a professor of international relations specialising in North-East Asia, said the situation in North Korea was "very bad" at present, due to the poor harvest, but a more dramatic indicator of the scale of the problem would be if military officers or members of elite military units opted to follow in the footsteps of these soldiers. The defectors apprehended by the Chinese were reportedly returned to North Korea, where they face execution.