PETROL PRICE PUMPED UP
But no long lines at Pyongyang gas stations as claimed in Trump’s tweet
PETROL prices are being pumped higher here in the wake of United Nations sanctions restricting exports of oil products to nuclear-armed North Korea.
Retail prices have gone up some 20 per cent in two months, and are more than double from the beginning of the year.
Two weeks ago, the UN Security Council imposed its eighth set of sanctions on the North in an effort to rein it in following its sixth nuclear test, which Pyongyang said was a hydrogen bomb.
North Korean leader Kim Jongun and United States President Donald Trump have since engaged in a war of words, heightening tensions. The latest UN sanctions for the first time imposed limits on supplies to the North of the fuel it needs to keep its citizens and soldiers moving.
Crude oil exports are limited to current levels, and refined products are capped at two million barrels a year.
There is a livelihood exemption in the rules, but the measures would seem to amount to a cut of more than 55 per cent in oil product supplies, and it appears to be having an effect here.
In North Korea, petrol is sold by the kilogramme rather than the litre, and payment in hard currency is required for retail buyers.
“It was US$1.90 (RM7.97) yesterday, today it is US$2,” said a petrol station employee.
“I expect the price to go up.” In January, prices were below US$1 per kg, and stood at US$1.65 in July, so they have gone up about 20 per cent in the last two months and more than doubled so far this year.
There is significantly less traffic on the roads here than earlier this year, although there is no evidence to back up Trump’s tweet that: “Long gas lines forming in North Korea. Too bad!” AFP