CHINA FALLS INTO LINE WITH UN SANCTIONS ON NORTH KOREA
Beijing to ban imports, expand blacklist of companies and people, and stop issuing work permits
China yesterday moved to impose new UN sanctions on North Korea, with its commerce ministry issuing a ban on importing goods listed under a security council resolution.
UN members are required to implement the sanctions within 30 days of the vote.
The resolution from August 6 is the most stringent set of sanctions against North Korea since the security council began punishing it for its nuclear programme in 2006.
The Chinese commerce ministry said that all imports of coal, iron, lead and seafood would be “completely prohibited” from today.
Beijing had already announced a suspension of coal imports in February.
The new resolution bans North Korean exports of goods including iron, lead, coal and seafood, expands the blacklist of companies and people associated with the nuclear programme.
It also blocks new or additional joint ventures inside the country.
Most significantly for Gulf states – Kuwait and Qatar in particular – it prevents an increase in the number of North Korean nationals working abroad.
The resolution also removes the humanitarian exception included in previous rounds of sanctions, which has been used as a justification for non-compliance.
It was passed unanimously after North Korea topped a series of missile test launches over the past year with last month’s successful first launch of a intercontinental missile, with the ability to reach the east coast of the US.
Beijing is Pyongyang’s closest partner and has not always enforced security council sanctions to avoid destabilising its poor and unpredictable neighbour.
North Korea is a buffer zone between China and almost 30,000 US troops in South Korea, and Pyongyang’s stability is a strategic interest.
While Beijing does not support North Korea’s drive for nuclear weapons, it hopes to avoid any war that could destabilise China through a flood of refugees, or by getting pulled into what could become a nuclear conflict.
Chinese officials have said they would implement the sanctions fully, and this year began to ban coal imports from North Korea and reduce their oil exports to the country.
Beijing is the largest exporter of food and energy to North Korea.
Some analysts say the threat of secondary US sanctions on Chinese banks and companies prompted Beijing to enforce the sanctions more strictly and apply greater pressure on Pyongyang.
But China also sees the US president Donald Trump’s bellicose talk and Kim Jong-un’s brinkmanship as deeply dangerous, and is calibrating its responses to push both sides toward talks.
The US state department said the new sanctions would cut Pyongyang’s export revenues by a third, from US$3 billion (Dh11.01bn) to $2bn, and with it the ability to develop and build nuclear weapons and missile technology.
But this will only happen if UN sanctions are introduced by all of North Korea’s economic partners.
This has proved difficult in the past, as the security council resolutions do not have tough enforcement mechanisms and rely in part on countries to report their compliance.
A North Korea sanctions committee – made up of the 15 council members and a panel of experts – must report every 90 days to the security council on compliance and ways to make the measures more effective.
Although the process has led to patchy enforcement of the sanctions over the past decade, the Trump government may be more motivated than its predecessor to act against countries and entities that fail to comply.
China accounts for more 92 per cent of Pyongyang’s trade and has been the focus of US efforts, but North Korea also has a small but significant economic relationship with the GCC.
Estimates show that there are at least 15,000 low and highskilled North Korean workers in the Arabian Gulf who are cheaper than those from other countries.
Their heavily taxed remittances provide Pyongyang with badly needed foreign revenue.
This was underscored last week when Kuwait said it had no plans to cut the number of North Korean workers in the country.
The labour ministry said there were more than 6,000 North Korean workers in Kuwait — more than twice as many as previously thought.
Qatar is estimated to host 3,000 North Korean workers and the UAE 1,300.
Qatari officials were reported to have said recently that they would comply with the sanctions and not issue new visas to North Koreans or renew those that expire.
Because the exact numbers of North Korean workers abroad are not known, enforcing the sanctions against their increase may be difficult.
Pyongyang has diplomatic ties with all the GCC members part from Saudi Arabia.
Beyond the labour relationship, Kuwait has kept closer economic ties to Pyongyang than the other Gulf countries.
North Korea’s ambassador to the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain is based in Kuwait.
Some analysts say the threat of US sanctions on Chinese companies prompted Beijing to firmly enforce UN bans