North Korean guards shot and killed three Chinese civilians and wounded another along the border last week, prompting a formal diplomatic protest from Beijing, China's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.
The shooting comes as China, North Korea's principal ally and its key supplier of food and other aid, is under intense pressure to join U.S. and other international condemnation of North Korea for its alleged role in the sinking of a South Korean warship on March 26. The attack killed 46 South Korean sailors.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang, briefing reporters in Beijing, said the shooting occurred Friday near the town of Dandong in northeastern China. South Korean and Japanese media reported that the Chinese civilians were in a boat on the Yalu River, attempting to smuggle copper from Sinuiju in North Korea, when they were fired on by a North Korean ship.
Qin said China was investigating the incident and "attached great importance to it." He added that China had "immediately made solemn representations" to North Korea.
Chinese analysts said that while cross-border disputes occur regularly, often involving livestock, a shooting of Chinese civilians was rare -- and the fact that the Chinese government chose to publicize it was even more unusual.
Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at Remnin University in Beijing, predicted relations would suffer because of the incident. "The Chinese government is very unhappy," he said.
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