Gunplay on the Yalu

Daily NK reports in Chinese:

美国自由亚洲广播报道，朝中边境地区频繁发生冲突的情况下，上个月30日朝鲜警备队和中国公安之间又发生了枪战。15日，自由亚洲广播引用当地多个消息人士的话说，上个月30日，两江道金亨稷郡边境警备队的1名下士和1名士兵渡过鸭绿江跟中国公安展开了枪战。广播说，这些朝鲜警备队员们陪同2名走私人员越过了边境，等待中方交易人员时被中国公安发现。中国公安不顾朝鲜士兵们的哀求想逮捕走私人员，争吵发展成枪战。[Voice of America Asia radio service, reporting on July 15 on the tense situation on the Sino-Korean border, stated that on June 30, a North Korean soldier and a Chinese public security officer exchanged gunfire.  A local source said that near Ryanggang Province [金亨稷郡, specifically], one soldier and one army member crossed the Yalu River and started shooting at/with a Chinese public security officer.  The report stated that these two North Korean soldiers were waiting for a Chinese trader when the incident broke out with the public security officer….etc., anyway, you get the idea…]

两江道的一位消息人士说：“中国公安门让带着枪的朝鲜边境警备队回去，用手铐铐上走私人员准备带走。”“中国公安不顾警备队员们的抵抗想逮捕走私人员，生气的警备队员就向空中发射了自动步枪。”朝鲜警备队一开枪，中国警察就丢下走私人员急忙躲开，警备队员们赶紧带着走私人员坐上木排逃离现场过程中进行了枪战。广播说枪战中没有发生伤亡。

事件发生后，朝鲜和中国马上出面解决。引起枪战的警备兵和走私人员都当场被捕，押送到了平安北道厚昌郡高邑工人区的警备大队本部。最近，朝中边境地区的双方冲突不断。上个月3日，去往新义州的2名中国人遭到朝鲜边境警备队的枪击身亡。上个月20日，慈江道万蒲市还发生了朝鲜保卫部2名人员拷问中国人致死的事件。广播说，为此中国研究过把边境警备任务移交给人民解放军的问题，可是朝鲜进行了强烈的抗议。

Probably what matters here is the extent to which this story is picked up by the Chinese news services, which seems pretty unlikely.  It is, however, filtering in at the very least through the Daily NK’s own site (which to my knowledge remains unblocked in China) and this BBS reposting on the 0513 site, put up in the last hour.  I’m still looking for the original VOA report in Chinese and so far have come up with only this, which tells the same story in a slightly different vein.    Fortunately, no one was wounded or killed.

Keeping in mind that the breathless Daily Telegraph report (whose essential elements were in fact wholly derived from this Asahi Shimbun report) of an “increase in defections” and discontent among the border guards hasn’t been confirmed, and that Asahi Shimbun tends towards the sensational, and that this VOA report hasn’t been confirmed, and that no Chinese Foreign Ministry official has yet to comment on it….nevertheless, if it’s true, it would appear that 2010 has already been a rather chippy one for border guard relations along the Yalu and Tumen rivers.  How do you reconcile this narrative of opposition and lack of control, by the way, with the reports of seamless Sino-North Korean cooperation in hunting down refugees?  What a complex relationship of events and propaganda!