The scenes of North Korea as seen from Tuman and Dandong in northeastern China look bleak. From the perspective of North Korea, however, the region is "the delivery room of hope." Sinuiju, North Pyongan province; Manpo, Jagang province; Hyesan, Yanggang province; Musan, Hyeoryong and Onsong, North Hamgyong province, dubbed "the border region," offer an atmosphere quite different from that of the inland area. These border towns began to attract people and goods influenced by China's opening and reform, the phenomenon of which was accelerated by food shortages. Mining towns along the Tumen River, which used to house political exiles, are losing their "proper functions."

Trains destined for the north are always packed even though pass getting procedures are troublesome. Required for travel to the border area are special passes with blue lines printed, the securing of which is said to be often through bribery, according to North Korea watchers here. The size of the bribe has reportedly spiraled to NKW500 recently from NKW200 in the early 1990s. There are still routes braved by those who don't carry special passes. They jump off trains before passes are checked and continue traveling on foot. The authorities have since installed "No. 10 checkpoints" at the entrance of border towns in a bid to control road travelers, but the persistent will to survive helps determined and desperate escapees find roads crossing the border.

Marketplaces in the border area are thriving with colorful Chinese commodities and various products transported from the inland. Foreign goods shops also do good business, as they are frequented by Chinese residents and former Korean residents in Japan who have migrated to the North, both categories of whom are alienated from the system. Their divergence with the locals in living standards often results in conflicts.

Most typical border cities are Sinuiju and Hyesan. The former is not as beautiful and tidy as Pyongyang, but its citizens are more lively and richer. They harbor little of the inferiority complex to their capital counterparts. Thanks to their frequent contacts with Chinese across the Yalu River, their ways of thinking are much more liberal. Young couples speeding on motorcycles and ordinary citizens criticizing ranking party officials are often seen there. Many people who have quit their normal jobs are engaged in commerce earnestly, though thugs coming from the inland present disorderly scenes. Females follow the latest fashion so much that they are said to influence even Pyongyang women.

Evading surveillance by the authorities, some border area residents watch Chinese televisions. Watching the 1988 Seoul Olympics through Chinese televisions, they are said to have reshaped their understanding of South Korea. A perception prevails in the border area that "becoming Workers' Party members is of no use. Money is almighty." The economy-first way of life; to the extent of giving rise to an impression that "everyone is bent on commerce;" confronts the solid wall of politics in the North, say North Korea watchers. Such perceptions spread inland aboard trains to influence a shift in the consciousness of North Koreans.

These remarks Kim Jong Il has allegedly made are widely circulated in the North: "I would rather see Sinuiju disappear from the map," and "Even without Hyesan, we can carry out the social revolution." Due to discord with the central government, the watchers say, the border area suffers from no small amount of disadvantages. Border area residents are liable to be labelled as "subversive." Open executions take place most often in the border region, purportedly as a means of rooting out rampant crimes involving wanderers and smugglers.

Above all, the border area offers final routes of escape from the North. In an effort to block the exodus of North Koreans, border guard brigades were established in five border cities along the Yalu and Tumen Rivers in 1996. Five more such brigades have since been inaugurated in Sinuiju, Manpo, Hyesan, Chongjin and Sonbong, setting up checkpoints every 500m in some places and every 3km elsewhere. Their guarding activities have recently been intensified.

Meanwhile, trading with China is thriving through such border routes as Onsong-Shatouji, Namyang-Tuman, Chongsong-Kaisantun, Hyeryong-Sanhe, Nodokni-Nanting and Musan-Chongsan along the Tumen River, and Hyesan-Changbaixian, Junggangjin-Linjiang, Manpo-Jian and Sinuiju-Dandong along the Yalu River.

(Kim Mi Young, miyoung@chosun.com )