| ID | 104302 |
| Title Proper | Fatal attraction |
| Other Title Information | China's strengthening partnership with North Korea |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Chang, Gordon G |
| Publication | 2011. |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | At the beginning of 2011, Beijing repeatedly denied rumors that it was planning to send troops to North Korea. "Totally groundless," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei, referring to reports in South Korean media that China had been holding discussions with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea about stationing of Chinese forces in the northeastern port of Rason. "China will not send a single soldier to other countries without the approval of the UN," the Defense Ministry said to the Global Times, a Communist Party-run paper.The denial was necessitated by South Korea's broadsheets, which had been carrying stories for months that Beijing was negotiating the entry of the People's Liberation Army into the DPRK, as the Kim family regime calls itself. In the most dramatic of the articles, the Chosun Ilbo reported in mid-January that sources said Chinese forces were already in North Korea. In the east, the reports stated, some fifty armored vehicles and tanks crossed the Tumen River at night about thirty miles from Rason in the middle of December. In the west, PLA jeeps in Dandong were seen heading to the North Korean city of Sinuiju, just south of the Yalu River, at about the same moment. If true, China's troops are back in the North for the first time since 1994, when they withdrew from Panmunjom, the truce village in the Demilitarized Zone |
| `In' analytical Note | World Affairs US Vol. 174, No. 1; May/June 2011: p.43-50 |
| Journal Source | World Affairs US Vol. 174, No. 1; May/June 2011: p.43-50 |
| Key Words | Fatal Attraction ; China's Strengthening Partnership ; North Korea ; DPRK |