CHINA-NORTH KOREA: TRADE INCREASES
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The New York Times on April 13, 2017, reported that amid sharply rising tensions over North Korea’s nuclear arms program, China's General Administration of Customs said at a news conference in Beijing on April 13, that its trade with North Korea had expanded by 37.4% in the first quarter of 2017 compared to the previous year, even though it had complied with United Nations sanctions and stopped buying North Korean coal. Chinese exports surged 54.5 % and imports increased 18.4 %. China released the first-quarter trade data just days after President Trump urged Xi Jinping to clamp down on trade with North Korea. Meanwhile, the state-run Global Times on April 12, warned that if the North tested another nuclear bomb or a missile, restrictions on oil might be the next step. It said “If the North makes another provocative move this month, the Chinese society will be willing to see the United Nations Security Council adopt severe restrictive measures that have never been seen before, such as restricting oil exports to the North.” However, Yang Xiyu, a former Chinese diplomat who led China’s delegation to the so-called six-party talks on the North’s nuclear arms development in the mid-2000s, said “It’s hard to ban normal trade that is not prohibited by U.N. resolutions.” The Chinese Foreign Ministry appeared to endorse this view when it cautioned on April 13, that Washington should not expect China to squeeze its neighbor, and ally, to the point that sanctions would provoke instability, and possibly the collapse of the North’s government. Nor would China be enthusiastic about more sanctions being placed by others on North Korea. Recent satellite images indicate that North Korea may be preparing for an underground nuclear test, which would be its sixth in a decade. North Korea often conducts such tests on important anniversaries, and Saturday is the 105th anniversary of the birth of the country’s founder, Kim Il-sung. (Comment: China buys iron ore, zinc and other minerals from North Korea, as well as growing amounts of seafood and garments manufactured in the North’s well-equipped textile factories. China reported that its imports of North Korean iron were up 270 percent in January and February compared with the period in 2016. But imports of coal dropped 51.6 percent in the first three months of 2017 compared with the first quarter of last year, said Huang Songping, a spokesman for the customs agency. Coal has been the biggest hard-currency earner among North Korea’s fairly limited menu of exports, earning Pyongyang about a billion dollars a year. Huang Songping added that China had not imported any coal from North Korea since Beijing imposed a cutoff on February 19) |