NK, China Tighten Border to Curb Defections

This is one for the "WTF" category of strict Communist control!
It's not bad enough that china has been dealt a horrific earthquake , resulting in approximately 62,000 dead so far , and could be as much as 85-90 thousand !
Or that north Korea starves its people by taking all the aid it receives for them and gives it to the military!
The little Nit-wits in control of these two countries -basically need to be deleted like a bad song on your I-pod! there is just no excuse for this kind of action !
the korea times

By Michael Ha
Staff Reporter

The North Korean and Chinese militaries have boosted their border patrols to stem the continuing outflow of North Korean refugees, an aid organization reported Sunday.

The report of intensified border control comes amid warnings that the Stalinist state is facing food shortages, though estimates differ on how severe the situation may be.

The U.S.-based Helping Hands Korea, citing eyewitness accounts of its members visiting the border region, said Chinese police are also intensifying house-to-house checks along border areas to crack down on refugees hiding out in ethnic Korean households living in China. The eyewitness accounts from Helping Hands Korea were reported Sunday by One Free Korea online.

....

The move is part of Beijing's renewed efforts to keep impoverished refugees out of the country and to keep the North Korean human rights issue out of the spotlight, while China is on the world stage during the 2008 Olympics, the group claimed.

Helping Hands Korea said border patrols on both sides of the Tumen and Yalu Rivers are being beefed up with additional guards to stop illegal border crossers.

The group also claimed it has been receiving reports of ``shoot-on-sight'' orders given to North Korean border patrols regarding refugees. It reported eyewitness accounts of ``snipers'' being posted at elevated border stations along the Tumen River.

Police officials in border regions, Helping Hands Korea said, are also being authorized to give ``substantial bribes'' to local ethnic Korean-Chinese to make them disclose the whereabouts of North Koreans hiding in their neighborhoods. These bribes have reportedly been increasing in recent months.

Helping Hands said the border tightening has resulted in some reduction in successful crossings of North Koreans into China, with some 30 percent of refugees being caught and sent back to the North.

The group also said there have been widespread reports at border areas confirming that food shortages are now critical in the central part of North Korea. The group's observation is among one of many reports in recent weeks about food shortages in the North but there have been differing estimates on how severe the situation is.

South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) reported last Friday that while North Korea does face a grain shortage, it is unlikely to lead to a famine. The agency has reportedly told the National Assembly that the North faces a shortfall of about 1.2 million tons of food this year.

But upcoming international aid and the U.S. promise of 500,000 tons of provisions could fill much of the gap, the NIS said.

Another warning comes from U.S.-based North Korean watchers Stephan Haggard and Marcus Noland. In an article appearing in U.S. magazine ``Newsweek'' today, they warned that ``hunger-related deaths are nearly inevitable, on a scale that could rival Myanmar.''

The truth is revealed by local food prices, they argued, which have nearly tripled in the last year, rising faster than local inflation and world prices. The average North Korean's monthly salary is worth roughly three kilograms of rice, a couple of days supply for a family of four, the two experts said.

So how bad do you think it is in north Korea that you runaway to China at the risk of being shot on site?