A mobile battalion in the Chinese city of Dandong on the border with North Korea is engaged in a winter tactical exercise, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday.

The exercise will continue for 15 days until early next year.

According to Xinhua, it is aimed at "improving the capability of rapid response to contingencies in cold weather by practicing mountain searches, stop-and-search practices, and counterterror operations."

But the drill apparently aims at dealing with any mass defections from North Korea amid growing instability in the North after the execution of former eminence grise Jang Song-taek.