N. Korean visitors to China drop 6.5 pct in 2014
2014/10/30 10:48
SEOUL, Oct. 30 (Yonhap) -- The number of North Korean visitors to China fell more than 6 percent on-year in the first nine months of this year, a U.S. news report said Thursday, in an apparent sign of chilled relations between the two ideological neighbors.
Some 139,800 North Koreans traveled to China between January and September this year, down 6.5 percent from the same period last year, Radio Free Asia reported, citing China's National Tourism Administration.
It marked the first decline in three years, possibly due to frayed ties between the two countries.
The figure rose 18.6 percent in 2012 and continued to grow 14.4 percent last year.
Employment was the most common reason to travel to China this year with 47 percent, followed by conferences and business with 19 percent. Less than 1 percent went there for tourism.
The vast majority, or 113,000, of them were men, compared with just 26,800 women, according to the report.
China is the North's last-remaining ally and its largest economic benefactor, and their alliance was often described as being "forged in blood" as China fought alongside the North in the 1950-53 Korean War.
But bilateral ties became strained over the North's third nuclear test in February 2003 and the execution of Kim's once-powerful uncle Jang Song-thaek, who had close ties with Beijing, in December last year.
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