On the eve of Hu Jintao’s visit to Washington, D.C., the Chosun Ilbo releases an explosive report that Chinese troops have moved into the Rason Special Economic Zone on Korea’s northeastern tip. I just posted a rather extensive comment on this story on the One Free Korea site, the contents of which I won’t mirror here, except to add that according to this translation of a Huanqiu Shibao reporter’s story resulting from a trip to the Rason area last month, there are about 4000 Chinese businessmen in the zone and — in contrast to everywhere else in the permanently-mobilized DPRK — very few North Korean troops.
In related news, apart from its fixation on the North Korean football team‘s prospects for future victory, the French media has produced a beautiful blog on the Sino-North Korean border region (via Le Monde, slow upload), has a nice and manageable database of Sino-North Korea stories, and informs us (via the France-North Korea Friendship Association blog) that the North Korean Moranbong acrobats are working in Monte Carlo.
Adam Cathcart 