North Korean purge fears spread to China

Chang Sung Taek was executed over an alleged coup plot
Chang Sung Taek was executed over an alleged coup plot
REUTERS PHOTOGRAPHER / REUTERS

North Koreans in China are being ordered to return to Pyongyang in what many fear is the next stage of a purge of those associated with the executed senior bureaucrat Chang Sung Taek.

Business people in border regions close to the Chinese cities of Dandong and Shenyang, as well as in the trading enclave of Macau, report that large numbers of North Korean traders were summoned home on Saturday amid concerns about their likely fate.

“I have heard that tens of North Korean traders have quickly gone back,” a Dandong-based Chinese businessman who deals with the North said. “On Saturday, two of my biggest customers told me they had been requested to return to Pyongyang immediately. I asked them if they were planning to leave,