China prepared to end North Korea student exchanges if missile test crisis deepens
Officials struggling to find 60 volunteers willing to study in nuclear neighbour amid mounting tensions on Korean peninsula
China is prepared to pull out all students from North Korea and terminate a near-20 years old intergovernmental exchange programme should tension escalate following Pyongyang’s newest missile launch, according to one official in Beijing.
Li Gang, an official overseeing the student exchange programme at the China Scholarship Council, said on Wednesday that about 60 Chinese students studying languages in North Korea were returning to China this or next month.
He said the students were leaving because they had completed their seven-month exchange programme, and it was not directly linked to the latest missile test conducted by Pyongyang.
Wednesday night’s test involved what North Korea said was a new type of intercontinental ballistic missile with a range that could cover “all of the mainland US” and a “super-large heavy warhead.”
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The programme has been implemented without interruption since the early 2000s, but it could change at any time, according to Li.
The council, which manages Chinese government funding for mainland students studying overseas and foreign students studying in China, is receiving constant briefings about North Korea from China’s intelligence gathering agencies, Li said.