Signs of improving North Korea-China relations have emerged, including the restart of Chinese group tours to the North. However, Beijing’s ongoing crackdown on North Korean workers continues unabated, with no signs of relaxing restrictions on bilateral trade with Pyongyang either.
According to a source in China recently, Chinese authorities have recently conducted several group deportations of North Korean laborers working in Dandong, Liaoning province.
North Korean workers in China must inform Chinese police before leaving their factories or dormitories to shop or walk downtown. In mid-February, Chinese police caught a North Korean worker wandering around downtown Dandong without permission. The worker and all her North Korean colleagues at the factory were deported in the crackdown.
Fewer than 100 North Korean workers remained at the factory, as some had already returned home. Although the remaining workers were scheduled to repatriate gradually this year, they all returned at once due to the sudden deportation.
A similar incident occurred earlier in February. Three North Koreans—including workers and a managing official—visited a hospital in downtown Dandong without informing police after an emergency at their factory in one of Dandong’s development zones. When Chinese police discovered this, they expelled all approximately 100 North Korean workers from the factory.
The Chinese factory owner appealed to police, explaining that the North Koreans had violated the rule due to an emergency, but authorities refused to reverse the deportation order.
“There’s an atmosphere of unease in Dandong’s development zone with the mass deportations of North Korean workers,” the source said. “The authorities could have overlooked these violations, but wasn’t everyone deported because the Chinese government continues to restrict North Korean workers?”
In September last year, Chinese authorities also deported all North Korean workers from a factory after police caught one laborer wandering downtown Dandong without permission during a crackdown.
Meanwhile, China continues to restrict trade with North Korea through intensified inspections of items entering the North.
According to another source in China, Dandong’s city government requires items bound for North Korea to undergo multiple inspections before reaching customs. These measures focus on detecting luxury goods and other items subject to international sanctions.
Dandong officials frequently change the inspection locations, including downtown cargo warehouses, causing complaints from transport companies shipping goods to North Korea.
Some observers suggest the local Chinese government’s stricter inspections of items entering North Korea reflect Beijing’s ongoing discomfort with Pyongyang.
“Inspections on items going from Dandong to Sinuiju have never been this strict,” the source said. “I think the city government’s additional inspections might disappear if relations between China and North Korea improve.”
March 06, 2025 at 10:08AM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)