Chinese Government Confiscates, Bans on Sales of Magazine Critical of North Korea

The Sankei Shimbun of Japan reported Saturday from Beijing that the Chinese government imposed a sales ban on and confiscated the lastest issue of the diplomacy bimensal-magazine “Strategy and Management,” which carried a dissertation that severely criticized North Korea’s political system.

A source said, “The Chinese government concluded that contents of the dissertation causes diplomatic trouble because North Korea raged against it.”

The source suggested that North Korea prohibited a visit to Pyongyang by Chinese on August 20 out of rage against the dissertation.

The controversial dissertation was written by a researcher from China’s Research Institute for International Economy in the Tianjin Research Institute of Social Science, a research institute for national policy. It criticizes the political hereditary system and political persecution in North Korea, and urges a review of Chinese diplomatic strategy that entirely supports North Korea.

Hun-Joo Cho hanscho@donga.com