LONDON: The smugglers' signal comes shortly after midnight. From the darkness of the North Korean houses on the "opposite" bank of the icy Yalu river, a torchlight flashes twice.

It stirs a Chinese woman, wrapped in thick winter clothing, to leave her ramshackle home and trudge across the snow towards the narrow stretch of water that serves as a border.

She is not alone. Here and there, shadowy figures can be seen on both sides of the misty river quietly carrying out an illegal - but thriving - trade in women, endangered species, food and consumer appliances.

Chinese border guards patrol the river banks, rifles slung over the shoulders of their thick green coats. But tonight at least they turn a blind eye to the flow of contraband goods and refugees that is keeping countless people from starvation and, according to some critics, Kim Jong-il's regime from collapse.

On the Chinese side, entire villages appear to be involved in the trade and nobody is particularly concerned about being caught. Chairs and sofas are left outside riverside homes so that lookouts can wait in comfort for the signal to make a delivery or pick-up. Local night markets openly sell the contraband goods procured across the border - ginseng, dog meat, bronzeware and timber.

Traders also whisper that they can get bear gallstones - part of an endangered species. Selling these items is forbidden by law but they are highly prized in traditional medicine and fetch a good price.

For many years, this north-east Asian boundary has been far more porous than many in the outside world believe. Since the start of the famines of the mid-90s, tens, possibly hundreds, of thousands have fled across the Yalu in search of food. Those who stay behind depend on the huge amounts of food and clothing acquired legally and illegally in China.

Now that the temperature has dropped below zero, child beggars and day labourers cross back and forth over the frozen river. Such is the lack of controls that a local taxi driver says livestock are even led across the ice during daylight.-Dawn/The Guardian News Service.