China has put up a massive concrete and barbed wire fence along parts of its border with North Korea to block a possible influx of refugees as strong international sanctions are enacted in response to Pyongyang's program to develop nuclear weapons.
In addition, China's People's Liberation Army recently conducted military exercises and deployed additional troops near the North Korean border.
Concrete and barbed wire fence on the North Korean border near the Chinese city of Dandong.
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The border fence, 2.5-meter-high T-shaped concrete poles strung with barbed wire, was constructed along the river with lower banks and narrower width, indicating that it is designed to stop North Koreans from crossing into China.
More than 300,000 North Koreans have fled to China where they hope to make their way to South Korea, according to human rights activists.
China has acknowledged it is building a barbed wire fence along its border with North Korea.
China has also restricted exports of oil and other necessities to the North, according to Japan's Asahi Shimbun newspaper. China has provided up to 90 percent of its fuel and 80 percent of the consumer goods to the North, according to South Korean officials.
"The aim of these facilities is to improve management and control conditions and ensure good order at the borders," China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said. The move is not in response to the North's nuclear test on Oct. 9, he said.
Beijing also closed three customs offices in northeastern China that had regulated cross-border trade between the two neighbors. Border exchanges are the key to the two-way trade between the two countries.
