CHINA: Light and darkness tell the difference between Chinese and North Korean border towns

Sinuiju and Dandong are like darkness and light. The two cities stare at each other across the Yalu River, the waterway that divides China from North Korea, mirror images of each other but decades apart. At night, the "Friendship Bridge" that spans the river between the two countries is strung with lights that fade into darkness as it reaches the North Korean side. Power shortages there mean the contrast between pitch black on Sinuiju's riverfront, and flashing waterside restaurants and bars on Dandong's. North Korean theme restaurants are well-known in Dandong, mostly with waitresses in traditional North Korean robes serving tables full of Chinese tourists. Where the traders and tourism operators of Dandong, a bustling city of 643,000 in China's northeast, show the results of the country's economic reforms, across the river North Korea remains hamstrung by a command economy that has left its people short of food and its industry moribund. China became a nuclear power in 1964, North Korea last week, when it conducted a nuclear test in defiance of international warnings. Despite a flurry of diplomacy under way aimed at punishing the North for the test and coaxing it back to talks on its nuclear program, Pyongyang seems to stand firm on its nuclear status in spite of the economic sufferings of its people. Cross-border trade between the two sides have recently been affected by North Korea's nuclear test as the international community puts pressure on the Stalinist regime to put a halt on its nuclear activities. But the Chinese seem more apt to ridicule their neighbour than fear it. "I feel that what North Korea is doing is much like our thinking 70 years ago. I would say North Korea has their own thinking on things. But for its people, of course they hope that that by becoming more well off economically, their nation will thus be stronger. But for now, North Korea's economy is not at that level," said 56-year-old Mr. Zhang, who is visiting Dandong with his family. "Over here, we are more prosperous. We have not been across the river (to Sinuiju) but by looking at their buildings and other things, just by looking at the appearance, you can see that we are more prosperous and open. Over there (in Sinuiju), how can I put it? Over there, they are quite isolated, it is like China in the 60s, the economy is not good and the country is isolated," said Mrs. Du, who has a mobile tourist stall by the riverbank, selling North Korean memorabilia. Indeed, North Korea viewed from Dandong is little more than a few clusters of low-rise buildings and a smattering of smokestacks. Tourists come from around China to gawk at the country across the river, snapping up North Korean stamps and trinkets that laud the leadership of its founder Kim Il-sung and leader Kim Jong-il. Trucks from Sinuiju ply the border bridge every morning empty and return filled with Chinese goods in the afternoon, acting out North Korea's economic dependency on China. Outside of Dandong's main town centre, Chinese farmers tend neat plots of vegetables among rows of greenhouses. But just across the Yalu river in North Korea, there is an eerie lack of people harvesting the scrubby farmland and not a single car visible. North Korean soldiers guard certain sections of the country's porous border with China and coastal patrol boats take in the sight of their neighbour's booming economy everyday.

ITN Source | October 21, 2006

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