Posted on 06/08/2010 10:33:50 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
BEIJING (Reuters) – North Korean border guards shot and killed three Chinese suspected smugglers and wounded a fourth last week, prompting a complaint from Pyongyang's only major ally, China's Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.
China formally complained to Pyongyang, and the incident was being investigated, ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a regular news briefing in the Chinese capital.
"In the early morning on June 4, North Korea's border defense troops fired at some citizens of Dandong in Liaoning province, because they were suspected of illegally crossing the border to trade," Qin said.
"Three people were killed, and one was wounded."
Pyongyang has a heavily militarized southern border which sees occasional exchanges of fire, and a South Korean tourist was shot dead by a North Korean soldier in 2008 while at a resort in the North.
But attacks on Chinese citizens are rare. The Sino-Korean border, in China's northeast, is quiet and fairly porous, with a steady flow of refugees and traders coming over to escape food shortages or profit from them.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Ageing leader North Korean Kim Jong-Il is widely believed to be preparing to hand over power to his youngest son Jong-Un, but little is known about his heir. South Korea's national news agency Yonhap has published what it said were photographs of Jong-Un during his time at school in Switzerland.
(AFP/KNS via KCNA/File)
File photo shows pedestrians passing in front of propaganda in Central Pyongyang. A university professor has warned of a possible power struggle if Kim Jong-Il dies before his son is in place, since some elites may question the legitimacy of another hereditary succession. (AFP/File/Yoshikatsu Tsuno)
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il (C) visits the Taedonggang Combined Fruit Farm in Pyongyang. The US State Department was Monday perplexed by changes in the North Korean power structure, after Pyongyang's parliament promoted the powerful brother-in-law of leader Kim Jong-Il. (AFP/KCNA via KNS)
Unlike our border where you can waltz in on any given day....
Jang Song-thaek, new vice chairman of North Korea's National Defence Commission, is seen in this frame grab taken from KRT footage released June 7, 2010. North Korea named a brother-in-law of leader Kim Jong-il to a powerful military post on Monday and sacked its premier in moves seen as consolidating Kim's grip on power and paving the way for his youngest son to succeed him. Kim attended a rare session of the rubberstamp parliament, the Supreme People's Assembly, to personally name Jang as vice chairman of the National Defence Commission, the North's KCNA news agency said. REUTERS/KRT via Yonhap
Choe Yong-rim, North Korea's new premier, is seen in this frame grab taken from KRT footage released June 7, 2010. North Korea's parliament sacked the country's premier, Kim Yong-il, who is considered the top economic official, and replaced him with Choe, a member of the old guard and another confidant of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's family who has been in key economic posts, the North's KCNA news agency said. REUTERS/KRT via Yonhap
russia will need 100% proof.
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