Beijing denies sending troops to Pyongyang
- Source: Global Times
- [08:39 January 17 2011]
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By Jia Cheng
A Chinese government official Sunday dismissed a report by a South Korean newspaper that China was sending troops to North Korea.
"China will not send a single soldier to other countries without the approval of the UN," an official at the Chinese Ministry of Defense told the Global Times on condition of anonymity, citing China's basic policy on troop deployment.
The Seoul-based Chosun Ilbo newspaper quoted an anonymous official at the presidential Blue House as saying Saturday that China had stationed a small number of Chinese soldiers in Rason, northeast North Korea, after discussions with Pyongyang.
In the report, the South Korean official added that the deployment of Chinese troops in North Korea was aimed at protecting China's investment in port facilities and Chinese nationals, rather than for political or military purposes.
The Chosun Ilbo claimed that this was the first time Beijing had sent troops to Pyongyang since 1994, when China supervised a truce between the two Koreas following the 1950-53 Korean War.
However, Gong Keyu, an expert on Korean affairs at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, told the Global Times that even back in 1994, those whom China sent to North Korea were "merely negotiators."
There are only several conditions under which Chinese troops will be stationed in other countries, according to the Chinese Defense Ministry's official. And that includes for peacekeeping missions and disaster rescue efforts approved by the UN.
So Chi-hyong, president of the Modern China Research Institute in Seoul, told the Global Times that the notion of sending Chinese troops to the North is groundless because North Korea is a sovereign country and has been demanding the withdrawal of US forces from the Korean Peninsula.
"Military relations between China and North Korea were believed to have been strengthened recently amid the Korean Peninsula tensions. The newspaper's story shows South Korea's vigilance on the development of such closer ties," said Cai Jian, vice director of the Center for Korean Studies at Fudan University.
In October, South Korea's Dong-A Ilbo newspaper reported that China would station troops in the North to help modernize the North Korean army.
"China has neither the plan nor the conditions to deploy troops in other countries," Zhang Zhaozhong, a military expert at the PLA National Defense University, told the Global Times.
Zhang said that one major reason why South Korean media makes such reports is that there are some people who are not comfortable with the diplomatic efforts made by China in easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula, because it makes attempts to retaliate against North Korea much less likely.
Agencies contributed to this story
