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China suspends North Korean coal imports striking at regime’s financial lifeline
Posted on 2/18/17 at 1:07 pm
Posted on 2/18/17 at 1:07 pm
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/china-suspends-north-koreas-coal-imports-striking-at-regimes-financial-lifeline/2017/02/18/8390b0e6-f5df-11e6-a9b0-ecee7ce475fc_story.html?utm_term=.b5fca5ef4b2f
quote:
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 Sunday and be effective until Dec. 31.
China has also come under significant international pressure to do more to rein in North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, while Chinese President Xi Jinping is believed to have become increasingly irritated by Kim Jong Un’s behavior.
North Korea is China’s fourth-biggest supplier of coal. Although China announced last April that it would ban North Korean coal imports to comply with U.N. sanctions, it made exceptions for deliveries intended for the “people’s well-being” and not connected to North Korea’s missile programs.
In practice, that exception was the cover for coal to continue to flow across the border in huge quantities, with imports of non-lignite coal up 14.5 percent last year to 22.5 million metric tons (24.8 million U.S. tons).
But in a sign that Beijing’s patience was running out, it rejected a coal shipment from North Korea worth about $1 million Monday, the day after the test of an intermediate-range ballistic missile, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported.
China has long been reluctant to do anything that might threaten the stability of the North Korean regime — mainly because it fears that the reunification of the Korean Peninsula could bring South Korea, an American ally that hosts U.S. troops, right up to its border. Given that a total ban on coal imports could be potentially destabilizing, it remains to be seen how firmly the pledge will be carried out.
But Pyongyang’s unwillingness to consider China’s interests has badly damaged — or even destroyed — trust between the long-standing allies.
“China still places a premium on stability, but Xi Jinping is growing more and more frustrated with Kim Jong Un,” said Paul Haenle, director of the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center in Beijing, adding that the missile test and the assassination were seen as “serious offenses.”
“Beijing took the assassination as a direct affront to China. Xi is less willing to tolerate these provocations,” he said. “China is putting a squeeze on its economic lifeline to send a message to Pyongyang.”
Wang Weimin, a professor at the School of International Relations and Public Affairs at Fudan University in Shanghai, said sympathy for North Korea’s national security concerns had disappeared in Beijing, and “blood ties” between the countries had been broken as it became clear that the regime could not be tamed.
“If we choose an ally that can’t be tamed, we might become the biggest loser,” he said. “That’s why we are more and more strict with North Korea. Now self-interest is central. We won’t pay attention to North Korea’s interests anymore.”
President Trump has also called on China to put more pressure on North Korea to stop its nuclear weapons program, and the subject may have come up during a telephone conversation he had with Xi earlier this month.
China has “total control over North Korea,” Trump said in an interview on “Fox & Friends” in early January. “And China should solve that problem. And if they don’t solve the problem, we should make trade very difficult for China.”
The U.N. Security Council condemned North Korea’s latest missile test Monday and urged members to “redouble efforts” to enforce sanctions. That appeal came after an emergency meeting in New York called by the United States, Japan and South Korea.
Posted on 2/18/17 at 1:15 pm to Contra
Is it really safe to poke someone as batshit crazy as Kim?
Posted on 2/18/17 at 1:18 pm to Contra
Amazing what a phone call to Taiwan can accomplish. Art of the Deal.
Posted on 2/18/17 at 1:20 pm to TigerMyth36
quote:
Is it really safe to poke someone as batshit crazy as Kim?
I think the Chinese are more than capable of dealing with Kim if they want.
Tell China we'll supply all the coal it needs if they'll stop buying it from Fatboy.
Posted on 2/18/17 at 1:21 pm to DragginFly
quote:
Amazing what a phone call to Taiwan can accomplish
I think you mean Beijing.
Posted on 2/18/17 at 1:24 pm to Quidam65
quote:
Amazing what a phone call to Taiwan can accomplish
I think you mean Beijing.
Nope. Trump makes "overtures" to Taiwan, then reaffirms the "One China" policy. In return China cracks down on the NorKoms.
Posted on 2/18/17 at 1:25 pm to DragginFly
quote:May have more to do with Kim's erratic behavior as evidenced by the recent murder of his older brother.
Amazing what a phone call to Taiwan can accomplish. Art of the Deal.
Posted on 2/18/17 at 1:27 pm to Contra
quote:
Coal is North Korea’s largest export item
I wonder what their second biggest export item is.
Posted on 2/18/17 at 1:30 pm to Zach
quote:
The top exports of North Korea are Coal Briquettes ($1.03B), Iron Ore ($192M), Non-Knit Men's Coats ($161M), Non-Knit Men's Suits ($157M) and Non-Knit Women's Coats ($146M)
Posted on 2/18/17 at 1:30 pm to Quidam65
quote:Trump made them 'want'
I think the Chinese are more than capable of dealing with Kim if they want.
Posted on 2/18/17 at 1:32 pm to DragginFly
What are non-knit clothes? I can't find it on the labels of my 3 shirts.
Posted on 2/18/17 at 1:33 pm to TigerMyth36
quote:
Is it really safe to poke someone as batshit crazy as Kim?
What is that frick faced midget gonna do? It's about time China showed N. Korea some muscle.
Posted on 2/18/17 at 1:33 pm to Navytiger74
quote:
May have more to do with Kim's erratic behavior as evidenced by the recent murder of his older brother.
Yeah, don't even entertain the possibility it has anything to do with Trump and the fact that he made a call to Taiwan which upset some apple carts.
Posted on 2/18/17 at 1:35 pm to Contra
First the troop buildup on the border, now this.
Sounds like China is preparing for a post-Kim Jong Un world.
Sounds like China is preparing for a post-Kim Jong Un world.
Posted on 2/18/17 at 1:36 pm to Jake88
China needs to keep the international community happy to keep the heat off of Xi as he presses for a more Maoist form of communism in his own country.
Posted on 2/18/17 at 1:37 pm to Zach
quote:
What are non-knit clothes?
quote:
Nonwoven fabric is a fabric-like material made from long fibers, bonded together by chemical, mechanical, heat or solvent treatment. The term is used in the textile manufacturing industry to denote fabrics, such as felt, which are neither woven nor knitted. .
In other words, drek Ivanka wouldn't sell.
Posted on 2/18/17 at 1:38 pm to Jake88
quote:
Yeah, don't even entertain the possibility it has anything to do with Trump and the fact that he made a call to Taiwan which upset some apple carts.
Who didn't entertain that? It's possible. I still think it more likely that the more proximate event is the catalyst.
Posted on 2/18/17 at 1:39 pm to DragginFly
quote:
The top exports of North Korea are Coal Briquettes ($1.03B), Iron Ore ($192M), Non-Knit Men's Coats ($161M), Non-Knit Men's Suits ($157M) and Non-Knit Women's Coats ($146M)
When jackets make it into your top three exports you have serious problems.
Posted on 2/18/17 at 1:40 pm to Navytiger74
quote:
May have more to do with Kim's erratic behavior as evidenced by the recent murder of his older brother.
I agree this is likely the biggest reason. But if we agreed to ship them coal to replace their imports from NK, that might give them incentive to put the squeeze on Fatboy.
Posted on 2/18/17 at 1:41 pm to TigerMyth36
quote:
Is it really safe to poke someone as batshit crazy as Kim?
I doubt Kim will risk giving the Chinese the middle finger like he does Japan, South Korea, and the US.
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