More than one media outlet has included stories of border security on the rise between North Korea and China.

Since the coming of the Kim Jong Un regime came a crackdown on defections, both from the North Korean side and the Chinese, who’ve erected new fencing, including the electrified and barbed wire variety.

But how much of the border is actually fenced in now? And if defections are down – and they seem to be – what is causing this?

One photographer who has taken a tour of the Chinese side of the border in the last year told NK