The Bucks Stop Here

That North Korean along the border with China has apparently become the final (at least as far as China is concerned) resting place for billions of yuan in Chinese public funds. In what must be the week’s most delicious irony, China is now asking the North Koreans to close it down, despite the fact that it has to be one of Kim Jong Il’s prime sources of foreign exchange. North Korea, in addition to receiving most of its fuel and other necessities from China, depends on China to crack down on and repatriate North Korean refugees to maintain a minimum level of population and some control over it.

China will get what China wants, and that will be very painful for Kim Jong Il.