North Korea lambasts China for siding with foes
North Korea issued a rare reproach of China on Thursday, saying that its main diplomatic backer was “dancing to the tune” of the US for halting North Korean coal imports because of its nuclear and missile programmes.
Pyongyang’s state-run KCNA news agency did not refer to China by name but in an unmistakable censure it accused a “neighbouring country” of going along with North Korea’s enemies to “bring down its social system”.
“This country, styling itself a big power, is dancing to the tune of the US, while defending its mean behaviour with such excuses that it was meant not to have a negative impact on the living of the people … but to check its nuclear programme,” KCNA said in a commentary.
“It has unhesitatingly taken inhumane steps such as totally blocking foreign trade related to the improvement of people’s living standard under the plea of the UN,” it said.
China said on Saturday that it would ban coal imports from North Korea until the end of 2017. The ban came about a week after North Korea tested an intermediate-range ballistic missile in its first direct challenge to the international community since US President Donald Trump took office.
Trump’s administration has said China should do more to put pressure on North Korea.
China is North Korea’s sole major ally but it disapproves of its nuclear programme and has backed UN sanctions against it.
North Korea has conducted five nuclear tests — including two in 2016 — although its claims to be able to miniaturise a nuclear weapon to be mounted on a missile have never been verified independently.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said in a New Year speech that the North was close to test-launching an intercontinental ballistic missile. State media has said such a launch could come at any time.
A fully developed intercontinental ballistic missile could threaten the continental US, which is about 9,000km from North Korea.
North Korea was China’s fourth-biggest supplier of coal in 2016, with nonlignite imports reaching 22.48-million tonnes, up 14.5% from 2015.
China buys 70% of North Korea’s exports and Dandong, the main gateway for trade with the hermit state, is the best place to gauge the effect of the restrictions it has put in force.
Linked to the North Korean city of Sinijiu via the Friendship Bridge, Dandong has boomed in recent years, swept up by speculation that North Korea’s young leader would, in time, copy China’s export-orientated economic reforms.
More than 1,000 border trading companies set up shop in office complexes, while developers flocked to build new accommodation. But many of those firms have since folded, residents and traders say. Construction on at least two blocks of flats in Dandong has stalled and empty shop-fronts are scattered across the city.