Apart from not wanting to irritate North Korea, with which it has an agreement to repatriate refugees, China fears that a flood of desperate North Korean asylum-seekers would destabilise its north-eastern provinces.

• 除了不想刺激与中国有协定遣返难民的朝鲜，中国担心走头无路的朝鲜人潮水般涌入，这些寻求庇护者会使中国的东北各省不稳定。