Residents of towns near the North Korean border have safety worries following killings(2)

Jin Qiangyi, director of the Asia Studies Center at Yanbian University, told the Global Times that such incidents occur frequently near the Sino-Korean border. The people who commit these crimes are not defectors, he said.

Some come over and steal because their lives are hard in North Korea. "The hungry North Koreans searching for food will eventually go back to their country," Jin said.

Jin has studied North Korean defectors and talked in depth with both defectors and residents alike. He has heard many such stories from residents.

Jin Yunhe visited his aunt and uncle in North Korea a couple of years ago and was shocked by their poverty.

"They earn about 3 yuan per month," he said. "They don't even have decent clothes. What kind of life is that?"

Border town security

According to the Guangzhou-based Southern Weekly newspaper, there seems to be a correlation between North Korea's internal problems and cross-border crimes.

In January 2003, North Korea declared, for the second time, that it would withdraw from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and was sanctioned by many countries. The same month, a few North Korean soldiers robbed residents of a town in Hunchun, Yanbian prefecture and ran back into North Korea after firing a few shots.

Around the end of 2006, North Korean crops failed and in June 2007, a village in Yanbian's Longjing was robbed by an armed North Korean soldier. He demanded every family give him rice, oil and clothes. The local City Evening News reported that July that the robber was caught by Chinese border police.

The security in border towns has always been tight. Border security, local police and forestry police all have checkpoints along the border, the China Defense News reported on January 14, and there are also militias who patrol the area, to help protect villagers from desperate North Koreans.

Along the river, barbed wire fences try to keep potential border-crossers in their respective countries. Residents used to be able to go down to the Tumen River and wash their clothes. Now, the fences stop Chinese citizens getting closer than around 200 meters from the river.

In recent years, the Yanbian border security forces have given border town residents free cellphones so that they can alert the police quickly in case of an emergency.

Jin Yunhe says that the massive police presence makes him feel safe, despite the recent murders.

Changing attitudes

During the North Korean famine of the 1990s, many deserters flooded into the border towns, Jin Qiangyi said. During that time, he personally helped many defectors, providing them with food and water alongside NGOs which carry out this kind of work.

"Back then, North Korean defectors came in groups, and the local Chinese residents would steam buns for them and wait for them along the streets," he said.

A tour guide based in Yanji, an hour west of Sanhe by car, who gave his surname as Du, said he used to see many North Koreans in Changbai township. He says that people secretly trade across the border, wading across the river and exchanging goods.

But he says now Chinese people are more wary of North Koreans, especially after so many violent incidents.

Once, while he was exercising in the mountains, he saw someone who didn't look like a local resident. He suspected the man was North Korean and approached him. Then the person turned around and saw Du. The first thing he said was "cigarette lighter," in Chinese.

Du did not hand the man a lighter, as he worried that the man wanted to start a forest fire. He asked the man repeatedly what he wanted the lighter for, but the man's only knowledge of Chinese was "cigarette lighter."

"He gestured toward the woods, and said, 'Poof!' I was startled, I thought, gosh, he wants to start a fire!" Du said.

Du walked for an hour and eventually reached some border guards. He told them about the man, and said that someone suspicious was in the mountains. When he checked back a couple of days later, Chinese border guards had caught the man, a North Korean civilian.

At the same time, border towns are increasingly made up of vulnerable residents. Jin Yunhe said has two sons, one works in South Korea and the other works at a Korean company in Beijing.

De-sensitize the issue

Since the shooting, the government and police departments of Helong city and Nanping town have not been taking calls from the media. Sanhe town's police bureau chief told the Global Times that he has received orders not to talk to the media, unless given permission by the Jilin Public Security Bureau.

Jin Qiangyi, the Yanbian University professor, said that right now, official bodies put too much emphasis on the North Korea issue as being "sensitive," and not enough information is publicly available.

"But the thing is, it has harmed our border residents' lives. The security of our residents is at risk. There should at least be some information from the government so that the residents know how to prevent further assaults," he said.

In the future, there might be many issues in the border area, Jin said. The first reason for this is North Korea's economic problems. The second is that North Koreans are becoming more desperate, because their lives are hard and their social atmosphere is strict, he argued.

Jin Yunhe's sons have repeatedly asked him to move to Beijing but Jin refused. "The air and water are better here," he said.

He is not optimistic about his dwindling community's future however.

"In 10 years, this town will be gone!" he said.