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The chicken and beer festival in Daegu

The Chinese city of Qingdao announced on July 27 that it would not be appearing at a chicken and beer festival in Daegu. That same day marks the beginning of work on a highway linking the city of Dandong in China’s Liaoning Province with Kaesong in North Korea. Meanwhile, Russia recently provided North Korea with over 3,000 tons of flour aid.

Signs are pointing to North Korea‘s increasingly cozy relations between China and Russia as South Korea and China fall out over the recent decision to deploy a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system with US Forces Korea.

City officials from Daegu organized an emergency visit to China on the afternoon of July 25 to meet with officials in Qingdao, which formed a sister city relationship with it in 1993. The aim was to get a fix on the situation after Qingdao notified Daegu on the morning of July 24 that it would not be able to participate in the chicken and beer festival because of “timing issues” and asked that Daegu not participate in Qingdao’s own international beer festival. The Daegu festival opens on July 27, while the Qingdao festival kicks off on Aug. 1.

Many with the city of Daegu are now asking whether the “timing issues” excuse was a reference to the THAAD deployment issue. At the same time, other Chinese cities such as Ningbo, Yiwu, and Chengdu did not announce plans not to attend.

A Gangwon Province event inviting power bloggers from China has also been temporarily delayed from its originally scheduled date in August. It means a de facto cancellation of the original plan, which was for one Chinese power blogger and one Chinese entertainer to make a promotional video over an eight-day period touring Cheorwon, Inje, Hongcheon, and Donghae in Gangwon Province.

“We were contacted by the power blogger and told that they were in a difficult position [because of the THAAD issue] and hoped the schedule could be postponed,” explained a source with Gangwon Provincial Office.

The North Korea-China highway entering construction on July 27 is to stretch for around 400 km and connect the North Korean cities of Sinuiju, Pyongyang, and Kaesong. Once connected to the New Amnok (Yalu) River Bridge - which is all but complete - it will link those cities to the Dandong area in China’s Liaoning Province. The highway plan had originally been pursued as a cooperative project with South Korea, but fell through after inter-Korean relations soured. While the delay in the initial groundbreaking ceremony date in April was due to the North Korean nuclear issue and bore no direct connection to the THAAD issue, the project’s launch could have great symbolic meaning for economic cooperation between North Korea and China.

Meanwhile, Russia, which has also expressed its vehement opposition to the THAAD deployment, provided North Korea with 3,151 tons of flour in humanitarian aid and plans to provide an additional 400 tons, the Russian ambassador to Pyongyang said on July 22.

By Kim Il-woo and Park Soo-hyuk, Daegu and Gangwon correspondents

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