China stops North Korean coal imports until end of 2017

BEIJING — China will suspend all imports of coal from North Korea until the end of the year, the Commerce Ministry announced Saturday, in a surprise move that would cut off a major financial lifeline for Pyongyang and significantly enhance the effectiveness of U.N. sanctions.

Coal is North Korea’s largest export item, and also China’s greatest point of leverage over the regime.

The ministry said the ban would come into force today and be effective until Dec. 31.

China said the move was designed to implement last November’s United Nations Security Council resolution that tightened sanctions against the regime in the wake of its last nuclear test.

But experts said the move also reflected Beijing’s deep frustration with North Korea over its recent missile test and the assassination of Kim Jong Un’s half brother in Malaysia.

Kim Jong Nam had been hosted and protected by China for many years, and his murder, if proved to be conducted on Pyongyang’s orders, would be seen as a direct affront to Beijing, experts said. A man from North Korea was arrested in Malaysia in connection with the murder.

Saying the first autopsy had been inconclusive, Malaysian authorities said they would perform a second post-mortem to try to ascertain what killed Kim Jong Nam, whose was sprayed with liquid in an attack at Kuala Lumpur airport.

The decision to carry out a second autopsy will anger North Korea, which strongly objected to the first one and is insisting on having Kim Jong Nam’s body back, accusing the Malaysian government was acting on the orders of South Korea.

The apparent assassination is strengthening bipartisan calls for the United States to re-list North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism, a designation lifted nine years ago. Doing so would increase the country’s isolation, while potentially complicating any diplomacy to halt its nuclear and missile programs.

Currently, the U.S. considers Iran, Sudan and Syria as terrorism sponsors. To reimpose the designation on North Korea, the secretary of state would have to determine it has “repeatedly” provided support for acts of international terrorism.