Sanctions on North Korea
Beijing enforces new UN sanctions after pressure from US
BEIJING: China will halt iron, iron ore and seafood imports from North Korea, following through on new UN sanctions after US pressure for Beijing to strongarm Pyongyang over its ally’s nuclear programme.
The decision was announced yesterday after days of increasingly bellicose rhetoric between US President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un’s regime, which has raised international alarm about where the crisis is headed.
Beijing had pledged to fully enforce the latest sanctions after the United States accused China of not doing enough to rein in its neighbour, which relies heavily on the Asian giant for its economic survival.
The Chinese commerce minis- try said on its website that all imports of coal, iron, iron ore and seafood will be “completely prohibited” from today.
Beijing had already announced a suspension of coal imports in February.
The United Nations Security Council, including permanent member Beijing, approved tough sanctions against Pyongyang on Aug 6 that could cost the hermetic country US$1bil (RM4.2bil) a year.
The sanctions were in response to the North’s two intercontinental ballistic missile tests last month, after which Kim boasted that he could now strike any part of the United States.
But Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi vowed after the UN sanctions were given the green light that his country “will for sure implement that new resolution 100%, fully and strictly”.
China, which is suspected of failing to enforce past UN measures, accounts for 90% of North Korea’s trade.
Trump complained in July that trade between the two nations had increased by nearly 40% in the first quarter.
Beijing has defended its economic ties with Pyongyang as normal commerce between neighbours and insisted the trade did not violate UN sanctions.
The suspension of coal imports deprives North Korea of massive income as it totalled US$1.2bil (RM5.1bil) last year.
The United States angered China in June when it imposed unilateral sanctions on a Chinese bank accused of laundering North Korean cash.
Trump will formally order a probe into China’s intellectual property practices, though US officials said it was not linked to the North Korean matter.
“It’s not appropriate to use one issue as a tool to keep pressure on the other issue,” foreign ministry spokesman Hua Chunying told a regular news briefing.
Regional tensions have mushroomed in the past week as Trump warned North Korea it would face “fire and fury” if it attacked the United States while the North threatened to test-fire its missiles towards the US Pacific island of Guam.