North Korea’s borders are creaking open

THE GATESUN of North Korea, closed since January 2020 ostensibly to keep covid-19 out, are finally creaking open. On August 27th North Korean state media announced that citizens who had been of the country during the pandemic were starting to return home. Some North Korean civil aeroplanes have already made return trips to Beijing.Many will welcome any relaxation of restrictions, in the hope it will lead to more food imports from China to stave off the country’s endemic shortages. But for one group of North Koreans the news inspires dread. According to the as many as 2,000 North Korean defectors are now languishing in Chinese prisons, awaiting a possible forced return to a country that deals extremely harshly with those suspected of trying to escape its clutches.