Communist China has traditionally been North Korea’s closest ally, but Kim Jong-un’s continued nuclear and ballistic missile tests have tested Beijing’s patience.
It also comes as North Korea was spotted transporting 30 Scud missiles from Hwangju, south of the capital Pyongyang, to Nampo, on the Korea Bay coast opposite China.
Now photos reveal the Communist superpower is building a six-lane highway in its desolately populated north east on route to North Korea.
With most Chinese peasants not able to afford the luxury of a car the construction of the G1112 Ji’an–Shuangliao Expressway, has led experts to believe it will be used for quick deployment of tanks and troops to its North Korean border.
Scott Snyder, senior fellow for Korea studies and director of the program on US-Korea policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, told Daily Star Online: “China’s Jilin province has even budgeted and paid for improvements in road infrastructure inside some parts of North Korea in recent years in order to improve logistical access to the Rason port inside North Korea.”
Dean Cheng, an Asia security expert at the Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington, said Beijing would have a ”vast array” of contingency plans involving military options to seize Kim Jong-un’s nuclear weapons.
The photos obtained by Daily Star Online show Chinese construction workers digging tunnels through mountains and massive cranes constructing bridges over rivers.
China has also reportedly been considering ways in which Kim Jong-un can be assassinated and replaced – possibly by a member of his family.
Professor Malcolm Chalmers, a defence expert from the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), told Daily Star Online China wants a North Korean regime change.
Prof Chalmers said: “China has been trying to find another member of the Kim family to replace him – which has of course enraged him.
“China are interested more in personnel change rather than regime change.”
Professor Chalmers, from security think tank RUSI, added China would prefer a leader who is “more deferential to Chinese interest, especially on the nuclear file”.
But he admitted even removing Kim would probably not lead to the total denuclearisation of North Korea.
He said: “It would be hard for a North Korean leader to entirely bow down to China.”
The developments after Donald Trump has repeatedly put pressure on China to do more to rein in North Korea.
Following North Korea’s second intercontinental ballistic missile test in July, the US President blasted Beijing for doing “nothing”.
The firebrand Republican tweeted: “I am very disappointed in China. Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet they do nothing for us with North Korea, just talk. We will no longer allow this to continue. China could easily solve this problem!”
While Beijing has urged negotiations with the despotic nation North Korea has also been ramping up its defences.
Last month, China shot down missiles near the North Korean border in a provocative show of force against Kim Jong-un.
In an explosive military drill China’s air force carried out exercises near the peninsula, practising to defend against a “surprise attack” – presumably from their erratic neighbour.
The exercise came days after North Korea carried out its sixth and largest nuclear test of an advanced hydrogen bomb.