China cuts North Korea oil supply
Pyongyang’s biggest ally also stops buying textiles to join sanctions vs Kim
BEIJING—
China announced on Saturday that it would limit energy supplies to North Korea and stop buying its textiles under UN sanctions imposed over its nuclear weapons program, further reducing support from Pyongyang’s last ally.
Exports of refined petroleum to the North would be limited to two million barrels per year, effective Jan. 1, the Chinese Commerce Ministry said. Sales of liquefied natural gas are banned outright.
North Korea depends on China for almost all its oil and gas but estimates of its consumption are low, leaving it unclear how Beijing’s new limit will affect them. The restrictions announced on Saturday do not apply to crude oil, which makes up the biggest share of energy exports to the North.
China would also ban textile imports from the North, the ministry said. Textiles are believed to be the North’s biggest source of foreign revenue following rounds of UN sanctions under which Beijing cut off purchases of coal, iron ore, seafood and other goods.
Trading partners
China accounts for some 90 percent of the North’s trade, making its cooperation critical to efforts to derail Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions.
Chinese leaders had been the North’s diplomatic protectors but expressed increasing frustration with the government of Kim Jong-un. They supported the latest UN Security Council sanctions but were reluctant to push Pyongyang too hard for fear that Kim’s dictatorship might collapse. They also argued against doing anything that might hurt ordinary North Koreans.
Chinese officials complained their country bears the cost of enforcing sanctions, which have hurt businesses in its northeast that trade with the North.
TheUNSecurity Council voted Sept. 11 to limit fuel supplies and ban the North’s textile exports. China, one of five permanent council members with power to veto UN action, agreed to the measure after the United States toned downa proposal for a complete oil embargo.
$750M in textile
Petroleum exports for use in the North’s ballistic missile program or other activities banned by UN sanctions were also prohibited, China said.
The US government’s Energy Information Agency estimated the North’s 2016 daily imports from China at 15,000 barrels of crude oil and 6,000 barrels of refined products. That would be the equivalent of almost 5.5 million barrels of crude and 2.2 million barrels of refined products for the full year.
North Korea has abundant coal but depends almost entirely on imports for oil and gas.
North Korean textile exports in 2016 totaled $750 million, according to South Korea’s Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency. It said nearly 80 percent went to China.
In a political rally in Alabama, US President Donald Trump again lashed out at Kim calling him “little Rocket Man.” “We can’t have madmen out there shooting rockets all over the place,” Trump said at the rally.
Trump said “Rocket Man should have been handled a long time ago” by his predecessors.
Kim earlier this week called Trump “deranged” and said the US president would “pay dearly” for his threats.
Trump delivered a combative speech Tuesday at the UN General Assembly, where he mocked Kim as a “Rocket Man” on a “suicide mission.” Trump also told the UN that if “forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea.”