Defense
Jon Woo/Reuters
As tensions climb to historic highs between the US and its allies and North Korea, rumors of massive movements of Chinese troops near North Korea's border keep surfacing.A Pentagon official told Business Insider that the US has heard the reports but had "not seen anything to corroborate it."
But Chinese troops are always stationed in the northeast near North Korea, and Yun Sun, a senior associate with the East Asia Program at the Stimson Center told Business Insider that "Chinese troop movements happen often along that border" when North Korean nuclear and missile provocations seem imminent.
"When North Korea acts up with some sort of provocation, the Chinese in the past have moved their troops to reinforce their deployments in the northeast for military preparedness," said Yun.
"On the other hand," said Yun, "I think it does signal that the Chinese are concerned about a potential escalation, or even potential conflict" between the US and North Korea, as North Korea plans a nuclear test and the US's USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier pulls up to Korea's coast.
The following alarming footage purporting to show a massive movement of Chinese forces surfaced on line, further stoking the rumors:
On Saturday, North Korea will celebrate the 105th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung, the founder of the hermit kingdom's Kim regime.
Experts say Pyongyang has a nuclear device ready to test, while the US has signaled a total loss of patience with North Korea pursuing nuclear weapons with the intent of one day threatening the US.
Recent footage shows a lot of Chinese military vehicles deploying toward North Korea border (prob. AirDef systems) 📹 https://t.co/YpskZPK3vN pic.twitter.com/Ve1YJNaeE9
- Already Happened (@M3t4_tr0n) April 13, 2017