This move comes as the People’s Republic of China has increased its military presence along the Chinese-North Korean border. China is apparently worried about an influx of refugees from North Korea should there be unrest if/when the people there learn of Kim Jong-il’s possibly poor health.

The PRC has been the chief ally of the PRK since the Korean War of the 1950s, but this latest development appears set on driving North Korea’s only true friend away. By limiting the flow of Chinese visitors and allowing/forcing the PRC to further militarize (by testing a nuclear device in 2006 and keeping Kim from the public view while rumors of the leader’s declining health intensify) its border with the PRK, North Korea is destroying any sense of a shared identity it has with its larger neighbor. With inter-Korean relations at their worst in years, North Korea looks totally isolated. This extreme view of a very narrow “us” in the face of an entire world of “them” is a bizarre and potentially dangerous mentality for North Korea, as a lack of a shared identity with anyone at all will only further its isolationism.