Special to WorldTribune.com

By Lee Jong-Heon, East-Asia-Intel.com

China is expanding its political support to the new regime of Kim Jong-Un by clamping down on would-be refugees. Beijing is also exploiting its relationship with the reclusive North to further its own ambitions.

The Chinese leadership, which rushed to offer public backing to the young and untested Kim Jong-Un following his father’s death from a reported heart attack in December, recently intensified crack downs on North Korean asylum-seekers hiding in China.

The increasing number of refugees is one of Kim Jong-Un’s most serious political challenges.

Meanwhile, China has won the right to build three piers in Rajin Port on the North’s northeast coast, giving China more access to the Pacific, according to Seoul’s Yonhap News Agency on Feb. 15.

China, which in 2008 acquired rights for the exclusive 10-year use of the No. 1 pier at Rajin, recently signed a massive deal to build three more piers at the port for its exclusive use for 50 years.

The Rajin port is located within the Rason economic zone near the border with China and Russia.

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  China extending, China-North Korea relations, economic backing it extended to Kim Jong-Un regime, exploiting political, North Korea defectors, Rajin Port, Rason economic zone