The UN sanctions against North Korea have broken China’s trade with the isolated country. As Chinese customs spokesman Li Kuiwen said today, bilateral trade fell 52.4 percent year-on-year last year.
North Korean imports fell 88 percent to 1.42 billion yuan (US $ 183 million), exports fell 33.3 percent to 14.7 billion yuan.
China and Russia demand easing
„We are strictly implementing the UN Security Council resolutions on trade between China and North Korea,“ Li told the media. The UN Security Council imposed harsh sanctions on North Korea’s nuclear program in 2017. He banned the export of the most important donors of coal, fish and textiles in order to block access to hard currency for Pyongyang. Even Pyongyang’s main ally Beijing agreed to the punitive measures at that time.
Sanctions led to North Korea’s worst economic slump in 20 years in 2017, according to a report released last year by the South Korean Central Bank. China and Russia are now working to ease economic sanctions, while the US is insisting on full nuclear disarmament of North Korea as a precondition.
