Unusual Troop Movements

Well, this wasn’t exactly what I had in mind, given that it’s not actually inside North Korea, but it’s interesting:

South Korea’s JoongAng Ilbo newspaper today cited unidentified Washington officials as saying about 10,000 Chinese troops were preparing for a prolonged stay along the North Korean border.

China, for its part, is furiously denying everything:

‘Such a report is completely groundless and unreasonable,’ Wu Dawei, vice
minister of foreign affairs, said at a briefing in Beijing today. ‘After
reading this article, people will believe it’s true. This is very dangerous.’

You can’t help but wonder how pesky a free press must seem to the commissars in Beijing. Ditto this BBC report on the Chinese government’s “highly unusual” assertion that North Korea is stable.

China has sent large numbers of troops to the NK border before, possibly to keep refugees out. Either way, it would be significant if China–given the probable quality of its inside information–felt sufficiently alarmed to deploy a major force to the border. Verdict? Interesting but inconclusive.