Business trumps Kim rumours at Chinese border

By Chris Buckley

DANDONG, China (Reuters) - At China's biggest border crossing with North Korea, residents remain focused on eking business out of the poor, isolated country at its doorstep, oblivious to speculation swirling around its leader, Kim Jong-il.

China's leaders may well be privately alarmed about unconfirmed reports the reclusive Kim is seriously ill, possibly from a stroke. Chinese state media even tersely noted his absence from celebrations marking the communist North's 60th anniversary.

But on Thursday in Dandong, a border city in northeast Liaoning province, residents preferred to talk of business, not Kim's possible demise and a reported missile test site close to the border.

"In one way, it would be good if it was true and he died," said Zhou Ping, a businessman. "They (North Koreans) are so poor. Even the ones who can make it here are so poor. That won't change until they have real reforms and Kim Jong-il won't do that."

On the Chinese side of the Yalu River, tour boats and trucks laden with cross-border trade plied their business unruffled by the possible trouble.

At night, the rising Dandong skyline flashes with garish neon light. The run-down, energy-starved North Korean side is dark.

"People here don't really notice it here," Kevin Garratt, a Canadian who has opened a cafe near the river bank looking into North Korea, said of the talk about Kim. "They feel it just doesn't affect them."

The scenes of business and security around this city underscore China's paradoxical relationship with the North.