New report shows tighter border between North Korea and China
A new report from NKNews.org has found a surge in security measures along China’s North Korean border.
The report discovered that an intricate network of security cameras, watchtowers and other surveillance infrastructure has been established, stifling the movement of North Koreans, including secret Christians, attempting to escape their homeland.
“We have also noticed the impact,” says an Open Doors worker who can’t be named for security reasons. “Year after year, it has become much harder for North Koreans to travel to China. And more expensive, too. You have to pay a huge amount to human traffickers who cannot be trusted. It’s highly dangerous.”
Although China has relaxed COVID-19 restrictions over the past year, the surveillance measures introduced as “pandemic containment” remain in place. Diplomatic sources told NKNews.org that movements of diplomats and foreigners in the area are under “nearly constant watch.” This surveillance extends to accommodations and travel hubs, with hotels and airports playing crucial roles in monitoring those in the border region.
The latest NK News report shows the security upgrades are most sophisticated around Hunchun, along the Tumen River. This region, due to its shallow and narrow river, has historically been a preferred route for defectors. As a consequence, roughly 60% of the 33,000 defectors who eventually made it all the way to South Korea hailed from North Hamgyong Province, which borders the Tumen.
Guards patrol the border between China and North Korea.
An expansive network of security cameras forms one of the primary means through which Chinese authorities monitor their border with North Korea. China is home to nearly half the world’s security cameras already. They are using technology like facial recognition, artificial intelligence and machine learning to create a “nimbler form of authoritarianism that’s capable of exercising unprecedented social control” in the words of Josh Chin, deputy bureau chief in China for the Wall Street Journal and co-author of a recent book on China’s technological surveillance structure.
How does this affect the persecuted church?
The report suggests that the heightened security measures are making it increasingly challenging for North Koreans to flee the authoritarian regime and for organizations to operate within the region. Open Doors is one of these organizations.
Open Doors partners operate a network of secret safe houses in China that helps North Korean believers who are able to get into China. With increasing surveillance making it harder to escape the country, what was already an unimaginably hard situation for North Korean Christians seems to only be getting worse.
This technology makes it incredibly difficult for anyone to sneak through the border without notice—and also means methods like bribing border guards may no longer be an option.
The situation also impacts the ability of food to come into North Korea. As the North Korean Economy Watch noted, food prices skyrocketed in North Korea during the border’s closure throughout the COVID years—smuggling is a vital way that food crosses the border, and if the border becomes more difficult to cross, food can’t make it, either. As the United Nations estimates that more than 40% of North Koreans are malnourished, this is a crisis.
The effect of heightened border surveillance is clear in the rapid drop in defector numbers over the past few years. A stark contrast can be seen with only 63 defectors reaching South Korea last year compared to 1,047 in 2019. “This has a lot to do with the impact of the pandemic,” says the Open Doors worker. “Both China and North Korea increased border controls. And China has had some of the most severe lockdowns and travel restrictions in the world. This made it virtually impossible for North Korean refugees to escape from China.”
These increased security measures, coupled with China’s long-standing policies criminalizing aid efforts to North Koreans in need along the border, pose a severe challenge for humanitarian assistance.
Pray
“We ask our donors to pray [Open Doors founder] Brother Andrew’s prayer,” the Open Doors partner says.
“When Brother Andrew traveled to Eastern Europe with no protection, he asked the Lord to close the eyes of seeing guards, so that they wouldn’t notice the Bibles [he was carrying]. God answered his prayers. We need the same miracles here in the area between North Korea and China. Pray that God will help North Korean Christians reach our safe houses unnoticed.”
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Your gift today will support Christians who deal with digital persecution in the form of increased surveillance and monitoring of activity.
