朝鲜华人：日显珍贵的朝鲜贸易通道
宋天宇(化名)有时会想念朝鲜。
“It’s the good times with good friends,” the young man in his early twenties says in one of many Korean restaurants that dot the Chinese border city of Dandong.
“跟好朋友们在一起的时候很愉快。”坐在丹东一家朝鲜餐馆里，这位二十岁出头的年轻人这样说道。在这座中国边境城市可以看到很多朝鲜餐馆。
Mr Song belongs to a privileged group of North Koreans — those of Chinese origin, who can freely cross the border and even become Chinese nationals.
宋天宇属于朝鲜的一个特权群体，他们是华裔，可以自由跨越朝中两国边境，甚至成为中国公民。
By moving to Dandong as a teenager, he avoided conscription — 10 years’ service in the Korean People’s Army is mandatory for all North Korean men. But Mr Song — not his real name — also achieved what he says his school friends can only dream of: escaping the Kim Jong Un regime and working in China.
宋天宇十几岁时就搬到了丹东，避开了征兵——所有朝鲜男子都需在朝鲜人民军(Korean People's Army)服役十年。宋天宇还由此实现了一个目标：逃离金正恩(Kim Jong Un)政权，在中国工作。他说，这样的事，他在学校的朋友们只能想想。
“Many people, especially the millennials, don’t like Kim,” Mr Song says. “[My friends] have no opportunities to develop themselves in North Korea.”
宋天宇说：“很多人不喜欢金正恩，特别是千禧一代，(我的朋友们)在朝鲜没有发展机会。”
As tightening international sanctions over North Korea’s weapons programme leave it ever more isolated, the country’s overseas Chinese, or Huaqiao, provide one of the few remaining bridges with the outside world.
针对朝鲜武器计划的国际制裁不断收紧，使朝鲜变得越来越孤立。在这种情况下，在朝鲜的华人成了该国与外界联系仅剩的少数桥梁之一。
Chinese North Koreans are invaluable as business intermediaries, according to scholars and Chinese traders in Dandong, which handles roughly a third of North Korea’s external trade.
学者和丹东的中国贸易商表示，朝鲜华人是非常宝贵的商业中介，大约三分之一的朝鲜对外贸易经由他们来完成。
“As other channels of trade are shut down, people increasingly rely on the network of North Korean Huaqiao, and they are likely to be in ever-greater demand,” says Zhao Tong, a fellow at the Tsinghua-Carnegie Center.
清华—卡内基全球政策中心(Carnegie-Tsinghua Center)的地区专家赵通表示：“随着其他贸易渠道关闭，人们越来越依赖朝鲜华人的网络，而且对他们的需求可能会越来越大。”
Academics estimate there are 10,000-15,000 North Korean citizens of Chinese descent, a number that has dropped sharply as families have emigrated to China. Agreements dating back to the founding of North Korea in the 1940s guarantee them their special status.
学者估计，目前约有1万到1.5万名朝鲜公民有中国血统——随着许多华人家庭移民中国，这个群体的人数比以前已大幅下降。最早签署于上世纪40年代朝鲜建国时的一些协议保障了朝鲜华人的特殊地位。
“They are the last living remnants of the era of socialist internationalism,” says Adam Cathcart, lecturer in Chinese history at the University of Leeds. “They always had some autonomy, being somewhat inside and somewhat outside the system.”
英国利兹大学(Leeds University)中国历史讲师亚当•卡思卡特(Adam Cathcart)表示：“他们是社会主义国际主义时代最后的残存者。他们总是拥有一定自主权，他们某种程度上在体制内，某种程度上在体制外。”
Their freedoms have increased under Mr Kim, says Mr Cathcart, who adds that the supreme leader has increased the opportunities for Huaqiao to trade with China, for example allowing them to have international telephone lines in their homes — a luxury denied to almost all other North Koreans.
卡思卡特说，金正恩上台后他们获得了更多自由，这位最高领导人增加了朝鲜华人与中国贸易往来的机会，例如允许他们在家安装国际电话线路——这是几乎所有其他朝鲜人都享受不到的奢侈品。
Since former Chinese premier Wen Jiabao visited Pyongyang in 2009, the group has gained increasing recognition from China’s government as a business intermediary between the two countries.
自从时任中国总理温家宝在2009年访问平壤以来，朝鲜华人作为两国商业中介的地位日益得到了中国政府的认可。
Other citizens need state permission to cross county lines within North Korea, whereas the Huaqiao can even cross over the Chinese border at will. In the 1990s, some were given “river-crossing passes”, a reference to the Yalu River that separates Dandong from Sinuiju on the North Korean side. Now some are granted “overseas Chinese passports”, which can be used to book travel between provinces in China.
其他朝鲜公民需要得到政府许可才能穿越朝鲜国内的郡域边界，而朝鲜华人甚至可以自由跨越朝中边境。上世纪90年代，一些朝鲜华人被颁发了“跨江通行证”，这里的“江”指的是将丹东和朝鲜新义州分隔开来的鸭绿江(Yalu River)。
In China, the Huaqiao stand out from other North Koreans. In the restaurant filled with North Korean truck drivers, Mr Song and his family are the only people not wearing the red lapel pins bearing the image of Kim Il Sung or Kim Jong Un that are mandatory across the border. Many people chat on their phones but only Mr Song has a smartphone — there is little access to the internet outside of Pyongyang.
在中国，朝鲜华人与其他朝鲜人有很大的区别。在这家挤满了朝鲜卡车司机的餐馆里，只有宋天宇与家人不佩戴有金日成(Kim Il Sung)或金正恩(Kim Jong Un)像的红色像章——在边境的那一边佩戴这种像章是必须的。许多人在用手机通话，但只有宋天宇有智能手机——在朝鲜境内平壤以外的地方几乎没有互联网接入服务。
Mr Song still keeps in touch with his North Korean schoolmates, mostly over the phone. His friends call him using smuggled Chinese SIM cards, and let him know the clothes and shoes they want him to buy them.
宋天宇仍与朝鲜的同学保持着联系，主要是通过电话。他的朋友们用从中国走私的SIM卡给他打电话，告知他想要他帮忙买什么样的衣服和鞋子。
“It’s easy,” Mr Song explains, “because so many goods sold in North Korea are Chinese, they can just read me the product labels.” He sends them across the border via the customs office.
“这很简单，”宋天宇解释说，“因为朝鲜卖的很多商品都是中国生产的，他们只需要告诉我产品标签。”他经由海关把货物送过边境。
Mr Song’s friends mostly work in the garments or electronics industry if they are not doing military service. As the UN imposed sanctions on textile exports this month, their opportunities will shrink further.
宋天宇的朋友们如果不是正在服兵役的话，就大多在服装或电子行业工作。由于联合国本月对朝鲜纺织品出口实施了制裁，他们的工作机会将进一步减少。
Mr Song’s grandparents left Shandong in eastern China for Sinuiju shortly after the Japanese occupation in the 1940s, when parts of China were poorer than the Korean peninsula. Mr Song’s cousin has a similar story: his grandfather left China in 1950 as part of the People’s Volunteer Army that supported North Korea against the US in the Korean war.
上世纪40年代日本占领中国东部省份山东后不久，宋天宇的祖父母就离开老家迁居到新义州，当时中国的一些地区比朝鲜半岛还穷。宋天宇的表弟也有类似的故事：他的祖父1950年离开中国，作为中国人民志愿军的一员参加了抗美援朝战争。
Mr Song expects to get Chinese citizenship later this year and says the first thing he will do is apply for a driving licence and drive around China. But he still has strong feelings for his native country.
宋天宇希望在今年晚些时候获得中国公民身份。他说，自己要做的第一件事就是申请驾照，开车周游中国。但他对自己出生的国家仍怀有强烈的感情。
“I get upset when people say that North Korea is a bad country,” Mr Song says.
“当有人说朝鲜这个国家不好时，我会感到难过，”宋天宇说。
When asked if he thinks it is a good country, he hesitates. “It’s essentially good,” he says. “The people are good.”
在被问及他是否认为朝鲜是个好国家时，他犹豫了。“本质上是好的，”他说，“人民都很善良。”
Additional reporting by Xinning Liu
刘心宁补充报道
