(FILES) This photo taken on February 29, 2024 shows a woman sitting on a bench, looking at North Korea's Chunggang county, in Linjiang in the province of Jilin, northeast China. Thousands of North Koreans are thought to live illegally in China's northeastern borderlands. Beijing sporadically rounds them up, but deportations ceased while the frontier was closed during the pandemic. Pyongyang views unsanctioned border crossings as a serious crime and is believed to hand brutal punishments to transgressors. (Photo by Pedro PARDO / AFP) / To go with China-NKorea-rights, FOCUS by Matthew Walsh