Good fences make good comrades, I guess...
In addition, China's People's Liberation Army recently conducted military exercises and deployed additional troops near the North Korean border.
South Korean media reports quoted border residents who said the 20-kilometer-long fence was erected immediately after North Korea announced its nuclear test. China has also stepped up patrols and inspections along the border with the North, they said. The border fence, 2.5-meter-high T-shaped concrete poles strung with barbed wire, was constructed along the river with lower banks and narrower width, indicating that it is designed to stop North Koreans from crossing into China.
More than 300,000 North Koreans have fled to China where they hope to make their way to South Korea, according to human rights activists.
China has acknowledged it is building a barbed wire fence along its border with North Korea. China has also restricted exports of oil and other necessities to the North, according to Japan's Asahi Shimbun newspaper. China has provided up to 90 percent of its fuel and 80 percent of the consumer goods to the North, according to South Korean officials.
So are the ChiComs putting the squeeze on NORK or are they just saying it for
"The aim of these facilities is to improve management and control conditions and ensure good order at the borders," China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said. The move is not in response to the North's nuclear test on Oct. 9, he said.
Beijing also closed three customs offices in northeastern China that had regulated cross-border trade between the two neighbors. Border exchanges are the key to the two-way trade between the two countries.
Here is a pic of the fence installation:
