Sino-NK

Police and Customs officials survey a border fence in Hunchun, Jilin province in November, 2025. | Image: Hunchun Public Security Bureau via Wechat.

As the only Chinese county which lies on the frontiers of both North Korea and Russia, Hunchun faces unique smuggling and border security threats. This article examines recent Chinese border-related policy on the extreme eastern end of Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, Jilin province, and follows other recent posts by Sino-NK covering border security, customs-related corruption, and trade in nearby Changbai County, as well as in Liaoning and its main border city of Dandong.

Authorities in Hunchun have conducted a series of recent border inspections and policy training exercises led by Li Wei (李威), vice mayor and director of the Public Security Bureau (PSB). Accompanying Li Wei in these pursuits has been Li Mujun (李木君), director of the Hunchun Customs Anti-Smuggling Branch. In mid-November, both of these officials oversaw a border patrol and anti-smuggling operation in conjunction with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), and the Hunchun Border Management Brigade.

The recent operation marked “potential smuggling risks” in relation to the terrain at each location, “laying a solid foundation for subsequent targeted crackdowns on smuggling” at the DPRK border with Hunchun. Images released by Hunchun PSB showed police officers inspecting the border fence between China and the DPRK, and examining maps of the local terrain during the operation. The PSB branch promised an increase in anti-smuggling border patrols, and greater coordination across multiple state agencies including the PSB and the PLA. This includes a greater focus on “key [smuggling] routes identified during the investigation”.

Although the official Hunchun PSB notice made no mention of North Korea, the recent border security and anti-smuggling operations were clearly aimed at the DPRK, rather than Russia, as the actions focused on Huangshan Village (荒山村), Ying’an Village (英安村), and Xiwaizi Village (西崴子村) – all of which lie adjacent to the border with North Korea, and not Russia.

Huangshan Village is situated just 10kms from Onsong, a North Korean county which has been subject to high-profile smuggling arrests in recent years. The head of the Onsong office of Kumgang Trading Company, a firm affiliated to the DPRK’s Ministry of Social Security, was reportedly arrested for ignoring Covid-19 quarantine policies and engaging in smuggling in 2021. This activity included the illegal import of rice and medicines across the border from China during the pandemic, presumably to meet local health and food supply requirements as North Korea remained closed to the rest of the world following the onset of Covid-19.

The sole official border crossing between China and the DPRK at Hunchun is the Quanhe-Wonjong gate, with the latter part of the Rason Special Economic Zone, the largest SEZ in the DPRK. Both sides opened a new road bridge at this crossing in 2016, which was closed from January 2020 following the onset of the global pandemic. Although China extended rail services to Hunchun in 2015, there are no cross-border trains between Hunchun and North Korea.

A woman sells North Korean and Chinese goods at a market in Rason SEZ, North Korea. | Image: Sino-NK.

Hunchun and its Anti-Smuggling Bureau fall under the jurisdiction and customs leadership of Changchun, the provincial capital of Jilin. In recent years, Changchun Customs has stepped up security and anti-smuggling operations along China’s border with the DPRK. Also in November, Changchun Customs organised an anti-smuggling and drug joint training session in Changbai and Baishan, noting “the high frequency of smuggling cases requiring further investigation and evidence collection in recent years”.

Changchun Customs anti-smuggling efforts have notably targeted Changbai, and Hunchun. In 2022, it organised a series of anti-smuggling exercises in both counties, which included online anti-smuggling legal education for 15 key import-export enterprises in Hunchun.

Contraband items crossing the border from North Korea to China at Hunchun are known to include food include rice, as well as cigarettes and alcohol, and legal and illegal drugs. A decade ago, the Hunchun Customs House reported cases in which smugglers crossing through the official Quanhe border gate had concealed cigarettes hidden inside the interior panelling of their vehicles.

Data on the scale and monetary value of smuggling operations along the China-DPRK border at Hunchun and wider Jilin remains scarce, so too official bilateral trade data for the province with neighbouring North Korea. Jilin Customs data does not break down provincial trade by foreign country, and instead gives only an overall external trade figure for the province. From January to October, Jilin recorded a sharp drop of 12 percent on foreign trade compared to the same period a year earlier, with the province reducing imports by nearly 20 percent, an indication North Korea may have seen lower shipments across the border to Jilin, at least in terms of official trade. 

As the Chinese state continues to “safeguard economic orderliness and social stability” in the Hunchun border region, it seems likely that anti-smuggling operations will continue to be more focused on North Korea than Russia.