The Dandong shooting incident occurred when North Korean border guards shot dead three Chinese citizens and injured one at Dandong city Liaoning province, People's Republic of China on June 4, 2010.
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Incident
On June 4, 2010, four Chinese citizens were shot on suspicion of crossing the PRC–NK border for trade activities. Three died and one was injured. Qin Gang (秦刚), spokesman for Ministry of Foreign Affairs publicised the news on June 8. According to South Korean media reports, the people shot were members of a Dandong smuggling group on a ship on Yalu River. Cross-border smuggling is a common occurrence since North Korea is short on commodities supplies. The North Korean soldiers may have fired suspecting the Chinese citizens were South Korean spies after the South became more cautious due to the ROKS Cheonan sinking. NK authorities said they were willing to compensate the families of those killed so as not to harm Sino-NK relations.
Other recent incidents
In 2008, a South Korean tourist was shot by North Korean soldiers at the Mount Kumgang Tourist Region. In October 2009, Chinese special forces detected sarin poison gas in the air at the North Korea–PRC border.