China bans North Korean imports

By Azernews

By Ali Mustafayev

China has announced a ban on import of key products from North Korea to empower the latest UN sanctions on the nuclear program of Pyongyang. The ban will cover coal, iron and seafood imports.

“A full ban on imports of coal, iron, iron ore, lead, lead ore, seafood from North Korea is introduced," the Chinese Commerce Ministry stated on Monday, RIA Novosti reports.

The ban will take effect from August 15, the Ministry announced. The goods that arrive to the checkpoints before the order enters into force would be allowed to enter the country on the previous conditions.

But at the same time, Beijing warned the Trump administration not to split the international coalition over North Korea by provoking a trade war between China and the United States.

Previously, U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly called on Beijing to exert economic pressure on North Korea as China remains the biggest trade partner of Pyongyang.

China accounts for roughly 90 percent of North Korean trade but moved earlier in February to suspend North Korea’s coal imports until the end of the year.  In July, China announced that imports from North Korea fell to $880 million in the six months that ended in June, down 13 percent from a year earlier.

However, a 29-percent –growth was recorded in Chinese exports to North Korea — North Korea bought $1.67 billion worth of Chinese products in the first six months of the year

In April, the Chinese General Administration of Customs stated that trading turnover between the two countries in the first quarter of 2017 increased to 37.4 percent, even despite the UN sanctions. 

The situation around North Korea became tense recently and has escalated further after the “trade war” declared on Pyongyang by the U.S. and the EU after its ballistic missile tests.

Last week, the UN Security Council adopted sanctions against the North Korea, reducing the Korean export of coal, iron and lead ores and seafood, which will reduce the country’s foreign-exchange income up to two thirds.

Later, President Trump threatened to unleash “fire and fury” against North Korea if it endangered the United States.

“North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States,” Mr. Trump told reporters “They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.”

In response to Donald Trump, North Korea warned that it was considering a strike that would create “an enveloping fire” around Guam, the western Pacific island where the United States operates a critical Air Force base.