China to shutter N. Korea firms, cut off revenue
Order heeds U.N. sanctions to curb Kim’s nuke program
— China on Thursday ordered North Korean-owned businesses to close, cutting foreign revenue for the isolated North under U.N. sanctions imposed over the North’s nuclear and missile programs.
China is North Korea’s main trading partner, making Beijing’s cooperation essential to the success of sanctions aimed at stopping the North’s pursuit of weapons technology. China, long North Korea’s diplomatic protector, has gone along with the latest penalties out of growing frustration with leader Kim Jong Un’s government.
North Korean businesses and ventures with Chinese partners must close within 120 days of the U.N. Security Council’s Sept. 11 approval of the latest sanctions, according to the Ministry of Commerce. That would be early January.
North Korean companies operate restaurants and other ventures in China, helping to provide the North with foreign currency. North Korean laborers work in Chinese fac-
tories and other businesses.
Also Thursday, China’s foreign ministry appealed for dialogue to defuse the increasingly acrimonious dispute between U.S. President Donald Trump’s government and North Korea.
“The Korean Peninsula nuclear issue is related to regional peace and stability,” ministry spokesman Lu Kang said. “Breaking the deadlock requires all relevant parties to show their sincerity.”
China, one of five permanent Security Council members with veto power, supports the latest sanctions but has said it doesn’t want to push North Korea too hard for fear Kim’s government might collapse.
The latest round of U.N. sanctions bans member countries from operating joint ventures with North Korea, most of which are in China.
The sanctions also ban sales of natural gas to North Korea and purchases of the North’s textile exports, another key revenue source.
China, which provides the bulk of North Korea’s energy supplies, announced Saturday that it would cut off gas and limit shipments of refined petroleum products, effective Jan. 1. It made no mention of crude oil, which makes up the bulk of Chinese energy supplies to North Korea and is not covered by the U.N. sanctions.
China also has banned imports of North Korean coal, iron and lead ore, and seafood since early September.
On Thursday, the Ministry of Commerce defended its recent imports of North Korean coal, saying they were permitted under U.N. sanctions.
A ministry spokesman, Gao Feng, said imports that were reported in August trade data were allowed by a “grace period” for goods that arrived before the U.N. ban took effect.
The imports are “in line with the [U.N.] resolution,” Gao said.
In Washington, meanwhile, Susan Thornton, the acting assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific, told members of the Senate Banking Committee that the administration is seeking to ratchet up “international isolation and pressure” on North Korea, with essential help from China, which she
called Pyongyang’s “leading enabler.”
Thornton and others also acknowledged that U.S. intelligence agencies don’t believe that North Korea will ever pull the plug on its nuclear program, raising concerns among lawmakers over the Trump administration’s strategy for bringing the crisis to a peaceful close.
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said Kim views nuclear weapons as “his ticket to survival,” and there’s virtually nothing to make him turn back. Corker, who also chairs the Foreign Relations Committee, asked Thornton and Sigal Mandelker, the undersecretary of Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence, what steps could quickly steer North Korea from being able to fire missiles at the United States.
“We’re trying to turn China’s position from looking at North Korea as some kind of asset, to looking at them as a liability,” Thornton said. “I think that [Secretary of State Rex] Tillerson has made a lot of progress on that front.”
But Corker said that while he applauded Tillerson’s efforts, the secretary is “working against the unified view of our intelligence agencies.”
Echoing Corker’s concerns, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said “there may be a contradiction between the conclusions of the intelligence community and what the secretary of state is trying to do.”
“It’s a really thorny issue,” said Warner, who also is vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. He called the findings of the intelligence agencies “fairly chilling.”
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., rejected cooperation from Beijing on North Korea as illusory. He dismissed the assumption that China wants a nuclear-free North Korea because Beijing fears war would lead to a refugee crisis on its border or a pro-American unified Korea.
“I know that’s what Chinese mouthpieces say to the United States and Western audiences, but I just can’t agree with it,” Cotton said. “A refugee crisis? Say what you will about our country, but I’m pretty sure that the Chinese government can build a wall on their border.”
China, Cotton said, is a strategic competitor of the United States and more “coercive pressure” should be used to
secure more aggressive action by Beijing.
SOUTH ACCELERATION
South Korea’s president, meanwhile, vowed Thursday to accelerate efforts to strengthen its pre-emptive strike, missile defense and retaliatory capabilities against North Korea, and he renewed his call for the armed forces to become more independent of the United States.
Moon Jae-in, in a speech to mark South Korea’s Armed Forces Day, said he would push for the South to move more quickly to retake wartime operational control of its military from its U.S. ally. Since the Korean War in the early 1950s, the terms of the countries’ alliance have called for an American general to command the South’s 650,000-member military should war break out.
Moon and other liberals have campaigned for South Korea to play a greater role in the alliance, and they have long called for the country to resume responsibility for wartime command as soon as it can feasibly do so. But the idea has gotten more public support as remarks by Trump have led many South Koreans to doubt his commitment to defend their country.
Moon said Thursday that a more self-reliant military could make itself stronger and more feared by North Korea. But he also said the South should strengthen its alliance with Washington. An aide to Moon said this week that the allies were working on ways to move strategic American military assets into the region
more frequently, to help deter North Korea.
“The top priority is to secure abilities to counter the North Korean nuclear and missile threats,” Moon said.
Since Moon took office in May, North Korea has conducted at least nine missile tests. On Sept. 3, the North conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test. And Kim, the North’s leader, has been exchanging increasingly bellicose threats with Trump.
Moon has been more aggressive than his conservative predecessors about building up the South Korean military. After he met with Trump in New York during the U.N. General Assembly session last week, Washington agreed to sell more sophisticated weapons to South Korea.
During that meeting, the United States and South Korea also agreed to expand the deployment of U.S. strategic military assets to South Korea on a rotating basis, possibly by the end of the year, Moon’s national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, told South Korean political leaders Wednesday.
Chung did not identify those assets, but in recent years the United States has often sent long-range strategic bombers and nuclear-powered submarines to South Korea for military drills.
In his speech Thursday, Moon said his government was accelerating work on three military programs: a pre-emptive strike system known as Kill Chain that would target North Korean missile sites; an air and missile defense system; and a program devised to launch strikes against North Korea’s military and political leadership should they start a war.