China makes diplomatic protest to North Korea over shootings

Beijing has made a formal diplomatic protest to Pyongyang Korea after North Korean border guards shot dead three Chinese citizens and injured another on June 4, Bloomberg reported. The victims, all from in or near the city of Dandong, were shot while trying to smuggle copper from North Korea, according to North Korea Intellectuals, a Seoul-based group run by defectors from the north. The incident took place as the group approached the border city of Sinuiju by boat. Similar shootings have happened in the past but haven’t been publicly disclosed after Pyongyang made compensation payments of iron ore or fisheries goods, the group said. China, an ally of North Korea for 60 years and its primary source of aid, has resisted US pressure to condemn Kim Jong Il’s regime. However, tension on the Korean peninsula is mounting after Seoul accused Pyongyang of torpedoing one of its ships.