Russia offsets China squeeze on N. Korea

Moscow boosts trade with hermit nation as Beijing makes cutbacks

As China responds to President Trump’s call to pressure North Korea to curb its rogue weapons programs, Russia has stepped in to help the hermit nation stay connected to the rest of the world.

Trade between Russia and North Korea rose by 73% during the first two months of 2017 compared to the same period the year before, boosted mostly by increased coal deliveries from Russia, according to Russian state- owned news site Sputnik.

China, North Korea’s chief political and economic benefactor, said it had curbed coal deliveries to North Korea and taken other steps aimed at persuading North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to halt his nuclear and ballistic missile development programs.

In addition to a boost in coal shipments, other moves by Russia with North Korea include:

uA Russian company, Investstroy-trest, opened a new ferry line in May connecting the Russian port city of

Vladivostok to the North Korean city of Rajin. Mikhail Khmel, the company’s deputy director, told Reuters the ferry is aimed at Chinese tourists seeking to visit Vladivostok by sea.

Russian railway officials in January visited North Korea to discuss upgrades to the Rajin- Hasan railway, which links Russia to the Korean peninsula, according to Russia’s state news agency TASS.

Russia and North Korea have reached a labor immigration agreement to expand a program that already employs 40,000 North Korean laborers in Russia’s timber and construction industries, a major source of foreign currency for Kim Jong Un’s government, according to the Japanese newspaper Nihon Keizai.

These moves come despite Russia’s signing onto recent sanctions by the United Nations Security Council, which call for reducing trade with North Korea in retaliation for two nuclear detonations last year and ongoing tests of ballistic missiles that the North says are aimed at developing a nuclear delivery system that can reach the U. S. mainland.

The Security Council issued a unanimous statement on May 21 that vowed to impose new sanctions on North Korea.

Trump is pressing China to use its $ 6.6 billion in annual trade with North Korea as leverage to crack down on North Korea’s weapons development, as China handles 90% of the North’s business with the rest of the world.

The Russian trade activity fits into Russia’s thinking about North Korea, said James Brown, an associate professor at Temple University’s Tokyo campus.

“They don’t want to isolate North Korea. They want to enable North Korea to be able to continue to conduct activities with the rest of the world,” Brown said. “They’re against the North Korean nuclear program. ... But the Russians also are more sympathetic toward North Korea.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on May 1 that North Korea’s recent missile launch was “dangerous,” and that Russia is “categorically against the expansion of the club of nuclear states,” according to Sputnik. But he also appeared to criticize U. S. policy toward North Korea, marked by U. S. military exercises near the Korean peninsula and belligerent threats from both Trump and Kim.

“We need to return to dialogue with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, stop intimidating it and find ways to solve these problems peacefully,” Putin said.