China will soon begin restricting oil exports to North Korea, the country’s Commerce Ministry announced on Saturday, marking a major step by Pyongyang’s top ally and trading partner to further isolate the country from the global economy.

China said the new restrictions are in accordance with United Nations sanctions leveled against the North to stymie its nuclear and missile ambitions. They include a total and immediate ban on natural gas and textile exports, and will limit annual petroleum exports to 2 million barrels beginning on Jan. 1.

“When approaching the upper limit, Chinese government authorities will issue a notice based on the export situation,” said a statement on the Commerce Ministry’s website. “Once it reaches the limit, from the date of implementation, no refined oil products will be exported to North Korea.”

China has been North Korea’s top ally for decades, and now accounts for an estimated 90% of the country’s trade. Yet Beijing has been increasingly uneasy with its northeastern neighbor’s repeated nuclear and missile tests.

Chinese state media have prevaricated on the prospects of an oil ban. In April, the Global Times — a state-run tabloid that often reflects official thinking — raised the prospect of curbing oil exports in retaliation for North Korea’s increasingly provocative behavior. Yet in early September, after North Korea conducted its sixth and biggest-ever nuclear test, it called the prospect of a full oil embargo “rash and extreme.”

“If China completely cuts off the supply of oil to North Korea or even closes the China-North Korea border, it is uncertain whether we can deter Pyongyang from conducting further nuclear tests and missile launches,” it said. “However, confrontation between the two is likely to occur.”

Whether China will fully enforce the restrictions remains unclear.

President Trump has put Beijing at the forefront of U.S. efforts to rein in North Korea’s nuclear program.

On Thursday, Trump announced an executive order authorizing a new round of sanctions aiming to slow North Korea’s progress towards being able to launch a nuclear strike on the continental U.S.. The new sanctions target any company or person doing business with North Korea. He called the nation a “grave threat to peace and security in our world.”



China, in accordance with U.N. sanctions, placed limits on North Korean coal, iron ore, and seafood exports earlier this year.



Gas prices in Pyongyang have spiked by about 20% in the past two months, according to the newswire Agence France Presse.



Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un exchanged a volley of personal insults this week, further ratcheting up tensions, and neither side shows any sign of backing down. Trump, speaking during the U.N. General Assembly, called Kim “Rocket Man,” and Kim threatened to “tame the mentally deranged U.S. dotard with fire.”

North Korea's foreign minister, Ri Yong Ho, said on Thursday that the country could soon test a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific. “We have no idea about what actions could be taken as it will be ordered by leader Kim Jong Un,” he said, according to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.

Gaochao Zhang in the Times’ Beijing bureau contributed to this report

For more news from Asia, follow @JRKaiman on Twitter

Trump announces new sanctions against North Korea, but China's role remains key

Aides warned Trump not to attack North Korea's leader personally before his fiery U.N. address

'Dotard' rockets from obscurity to light up the Trump-Kim exchange, sparking a partisan war of words in U.S. </s> China is imposing new limits on trade with North Korea after the isolated country's latest nuclear test.

China's Ministry of Commerce said Saturday it would limit refined petroleum exports starting Oct. 1 and ban the import of North Korean textiles immediately. It would ban exports of liquefied natural gas to the North immediately as well.

China accounts of about 90 percent North Korea's trade, according to The Associated Press. The BBC estimates the textile ban will cost the North more than $700 million per year.

"Textiles are believed to be the North's biggest source of foreign revenue following rounds of U.N. sanctions under which Beijing cut off purchases of coal, iron ore, seafood and other goods," the AP says.

The new restrictions follow the United Nations Security Council's agreement on new sanctions on Sept. 11, as NPR's Richard Gonzales outlined:



"The new sanctions set a cap on crude and refined oil exports to North Korea at 8.5 million barrels per year, which represents a 30 percent reduction, according to U.S. officials. The sale of natural gas will be prohibited and refined petroleum sales will be capped at 2 million barrels annually. The Security Council resolution also bans all North Korea textile exports, worth an average of $760 million over the past three years."



The U.N. sanctions were a response to North Korea's sixth nuclear test, which experts said was its biggest by far, earlier this month. The country also has tested more than a dozen missiles this year, some of which have flown over Japan — a strong U.S. ally.

President Trump has accused China of not putting enough pressure on Kim's regime to step back from its sabre-rattling.

President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un spent the past week trading insults and ratcheting up the already-high tension between the countries. At the United Nations, Trump called Kim "rocket man" and threatened to "totally destroy" North Korea. Kim responded in a statement, calling Trump a "mentally deranged U.S. dotard" and said "a frightened dog barks louder."

The U.S. put its own sanctions on North Korea on Thursday, against banks or companies doing business with the country.

There have been so many rounds of sanctions against North Korea that it can be hard to keep track.

And it's possible that North Korea is able to undermine them. Reuters reported that North Korean ships have headed home from Russia carrying fuel, despite the ships declaring they were headed somewhere else. Experts say North Korea also uses shell companies to skirt rules.

After earlier U.N. sanctions were approved in August over missile tests this summer, John Delury of Seoul's Yonsei University told NPR's Elise Hu: </s> China is imposing new limits on trade with North Korea after the isolated country's latest nuclear test.

China's Ministry of Commerce said Saturday it would limit refined petroleum exports starting Oct. 1 and ban the import of North Korean textiles immediately. It would ban exports of liquefied natural gas to the North immediately as well.

China accounts of about 90 percent North Korea's trade, according to The Associated Press. The BBC estimates the textile ban will cost the North more than $700 million per year.

"Textiles are believed to be the North's biggest source of foreign revenue following rounds of U.N. sanctions under which Beijing cut off purchases of coal, iron ore, seafood and other goods," the AP says.

The new restrictions follow the United Nations Security Council's agreement on new sanctions on Sept. 11, as NPR's Richard Gonzales outlined:

The U.N. sanctions were a response to North Korea's sixth nuclear test, which experts said was its biggest by far, earlier this month. The country also has tested more than a dozen missiles this year, some of which have flown over Japan — a strong U.S. ally.

President Trump has accused China of not putting enough pressure on Kim's regime to step back from its sabre-rattling.

President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un spent the past week trading insults and ratcheting up the already-high tension between the countries. At the United Nations, Trump called Kim "rocket man" and threatened to "totally destroy" North Korea. Kim responded in a statement, calling Trump a "mentally deranged U.S. dotard" and said "a frightened dog barks louder."

The U.S. put its own sanctions on North Korea on Thursday, against banks or companies doing business with the country.

There have been so many rounds of sanctions against North Korea that it can be hard to keep track.

And it's possible that North Korea is able to undermine them. Reuters reported that North Korean ships have headed home from Russia carrying fuel, despite the ships declaring they were headed somewhere else. Experts say North Korea also uses shell companies to skirt rules.

After earlier U.N. sanctions were approved in August over missile tests this summer, John Delury of Seoul's Yonsei University told NPR's Elise Hu: </s> China has said it will ban exports of some petroleum products to North Korea, as well as imports of textiles from the isolated country, in line with a United Nations security council resolution passed after Pyongyang’s latest nuclear test.



The announcement from Beijing came at the end of a week that saw tensions rise between the US and North Korea, with the leaders of both countries trading insults.

The Chinese ministry of commerce said in a statement that exports of refined petroleum products would be limited from 1 October and exports of condensates and liquefied natural gas would be stopped immediately to comply with the UN sanctions. 



Imports of textiles from North Korea would also be banned immediately but textile trade contracts signed before 11 September would be respected if import formalities were completed before 10 December, the statement said.

The moves follow the adoption of a unanimous UN security council agreement on sanctions after North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on 3 September.

The resolution imposed a ban on condensates and natural gas liquids, a cap of 2m barrels a year on refined petroleum products and a cap on crude oil exports to North Korea at current levels.

Russia urged calm on Friday after the US president, Donald Trump, called his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong-un a “madman”. Kim had called Trump a “mentally deranged US dotard” a day earlier after Trump said Washington would “totally destroy” North Korea if it threatened the US or its allies.

Trump announced new US sanctions on Thursday that he said would allow the targeting of companies and institutions that finance and facilitate trade with North Korea. The US treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, also said banks doing business in North Korea would not be allowed to operate in the US.

China has also urged calm, with the foreign minister, Wang Yi, telling his Japanese counterpart that Tokyo should not abandon dialogue over North Korea.

Pyongyang has launched dozens of missiles this year, several of them flying over Japan, as it accelerates a weapons programme aimed at enabling it to target the US with a nuclear-tipped missile.

The Australian foreign minister, Julie Bishop, said China’s cutting of oil exports to North Korea was a key move in attempts to force the country to the negotiating table.



“I actually believe oil is the game changer in the sanctions regime,” Bishop said. “China is clearly open to using its undoubted leverage – economic leverage. I’m not suggesting diplomatic, but economic leverage over North Korea, and from my discussions with the US administration I’m confident the US and China are engaged in very serious dialogue about how they are going to bring North Korea to the negotiating table.”

The US and South Korea are technically still at war with North Korea because the 1950-53 war ended with a truce, not a peace treaty.

Pyongyang accuses the US, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea, of planning to invade, and regularly threatens to destroy it and its Asian allies. </s> The United Nations Security Council unanimously stepped up sanctions against North Korea on Monday over the country’s sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sept. 3, imposing a ban on the country’s textile exports and capping imports of crude oil, Reuters reported.

It was the ninth sanctions resolution unanimously adopted by the 15-member council since 2006 over North Korea’s ballistic missile and nuclear programs. The United States watered down an initial tougher draft resolution to win the support of Pyongyang ally China and Russia.

Textiles were North Korea’s second-biggest export after coal and other minerals in 2016, totaling $752 million, according to data from the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency. Nearly 80 percent of the textile exports went to China.

The resolution imposes a ban on condensates and natural gas liquids, a cap of 2 million barrels a year on refined petroleum products, and a cap on crude oil exports to North Korea at current levels. China supplies most of North Korea’s crude.

A U.S. official, familiar with the council negotiations and speaking on condition of anonymity, said North Korea imports some 4.5 million barrels of refined petroleum products annually and 4 million barrels of crude oil. </s> Reuters reported on Wednesday that China’s state-controlled National Petroleum Corporation has suspended fuel sales to North Korea for an undetermined period of time. CNPC is the primary supplier of fuel to North Korea.

On the surface, it appears that China is using its ultimate leverage with Pyongyang. Threats to North Korea’s oil supply are regarded by some observers as the best way to tell when Beijing truly loses patience with its psychotic client state.

It also seems noteworthy that the Chinese move comes after President Trump’s public expressions of frustration with China regarding the North Korean crisis, and rumbles from the administration that new sanctions against China may be forthcoming.

The sanctions most immediately in prospect concern Chinese complicity in human trafficking. The U.S. State Department published a report on Tuesday labeling China one of the worst human trafficking nations in the world, with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson citing China’s importation of forced North Korean labor as one of the most serious offenses.

This report has been widely interpreted as a sign of deteriorating U.S.-China relations, and perhaps even as focused retaliation for China’s failure to bring North Korea to heel, even though the report was surely under construction for a long time–and frankly, China’s human trafficking problems are so severe that willful blindness would be required to ignore them.

The Chinese government claims the decision to suspend North Korean oil sales is “commercial” in nature, not a punitive action against the Kim regime’s pursuit of nuclear missiles. To put it bluntly, the Chinese say they are afraid North Korea will not pay the bills for its oil shipments, due largely to the impact of international sanctions against the regime’s missile and nuclear programs.

As Reuters portrays it, there is some degree of confusion in the Chinese government and CNPC management about which fuel sales were suspended and why. One source suggested the Chinese are making a more vigorous effort to cooperate with sanctions against North Korea, and they realize their efforts will make it harder for Pyongyang to pay its bills.

Reuters analysts found substantial evidence for a significant reduction of Chinese oil shipments to North Korea last month, reflected by much higher gas prices in the outlaw state. Complete data for June will be needed before analysts can determine if this is a lasting policy trend or a one-month statistical blip. Crude oil shipments from China to North Korea don’t seem to have been significantly reduced yet, just processed gasoline and diesel fuel.

A report at OilPrice.com suggests the spike in North Korean gas prices may have been caused by fear of a possible Chinese oil embargo, rather than the more modest actions they have already taken.

The South China Morning Post reported on Wednesday that according to a high-ranking defector, North Korea has largely managed to shift its fuel imports to Russia, which would greatly reduce China’s oil leverage.

“It is a wrong perception that North Korea is completely dependent on China,” said defector Ri Jong-ho.

He said dictator Kim Jong-un’s plan to replace Chinese oil with imports from Russia has been moving ahead at full steam since 2014, when a visit from Chinese President Xi Jinping to South Korea “infuriated” Kim and prompted him to begin viewing China as an “enemy state.”

If Ri’s assessment is correct, then some of the public confusion from the Chinese government over suspended fuel sales to North Korea might be due to the reluctance of Chinese officials to admit they have lost much of their leverage over Pyongyang. China has traditionally profited greatly from selling itself as the last resort for curbing the worst excesses of the Kim regime. If that posture is now a bluff, Beijing will not want it to be called, and the current suspension of fuel sales might really be best understood as apprehension over North Korea’s willingness and ability to pay. </s> UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council was scheduled to vote late Monday on a new, watered-down sanctions resolution against North Korea that eliminates initial U.S. demands to ban all oil imports to the country and freeze international assets of the government and its leader Kim Jong Un.

The draft resolution, agreed to late Sunday after final negotiations between the U.S. and China, the North’s ally and main trading partner, also eliminates a U.S. proposal to authorize the use of force to board and inspect nine named ships, which it said violated previous U.N. sanctions resolutions.

The resolution to be voted on represents a swift response to North Korea’s recent nuclear test, which it says was a hydrogen bomb, and to its escalating launches of increasingly sophisticated ballistic missiles it says can reach the United States.

But its provisions are a significant climb-down from the toughest-ever sanctions the Trump administration proposed in the initial draft resolution it circulated last Tuesday, especially on oil,where a complete ban could have crippled the country’s economy.

It would ban North Korea from importing all natural gas liquids and condensates. And it would cap Pyongyang’s imports of refined petroleum products at 2 million barrels a year, and crude oil at the level of the last 12 months.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, China supplies most of North Korea’s crude oil imports. It cited U.N. customs data showing that China reported sending 6,000 barrels a day of oil products to North Korea, which the agency said is mostly gasoline and diesel fuel vital to the country’s agriculture, transportation and military sectors.

That would mean North Korea imports nearly 2.2 million barrels a year in petroleum products, so the 2 million cap in the resolution would represent a 10 percent cut.

The final draft would ban also all textile exports and prohibit all countries from authorizing new work permits for North Korean workers — two key sources of hard currency. It would prohibit all new and existing joint ventures and cooperative arrangements with a single exception.

Textiles are North Korea’s main source of export revenue after coal and other minerals which have already been severely restricted by previous U.N. resolutions.

North Korean textile exports in 2016 totaled $752.5 million, accounting for about one-fourth of its total $3 billion in merchandise exports, according to South Korean government figures.

The original U.S. draft would have ordered all countries to impose an asset freeze and travel ban on Kim Jong Un and four other top party and government officials. The new draft would add only one person to the sanctions list — Pak Yong Sik, a member of the Workers’ Party of Korea Central Military Commission, which controls the country’s military and helps direct its military industries.

The original U.S. draft would also have frozen the assets of North Korea’s state-owned airline Air Koryo, the Korean People’s Army, and five other powerful military and party entities. The new draft drops sanctions on the airline and army and would only add the Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the party’s powerful Organization and Guidance Department and its Propaganda and Agitation Department to the sanctions blacklist.

North Korea’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement early Monday saying it was watching the United States’ moves closely and warned that it was “ready and willing” to respond with measures of its own. It said the U.S. would pay a heavy price if the sanctions proposed by Washington are adopted.

Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Matthew Rycroft told reporters who questioned the watering down of the initial U.S. text that “there is a significant prize in keeping the whole of the Security Council united and I very much hope that all my council colleagues will vote in favor of the revised draft.” He said he expects China and Russia to support it.

Rycroft called the resolution “very robust” and “a very significant set of additional sanctions on imports into North Korea and exports out of North Korea and other measures as well.”

China and Russia had called for a resolution that focuses on a political solution to the escalating crisis over North Koreas nuclear program. They have proposed a freeze-for-freeze that would halt North Korean nuclear and missile tests in exchange for the U.S. and South Korea stopping their joint military exercises — but the Trump administration has rejected the initiative.

Russia has argued that sanctions aren’t working and President Vladimir Putin expressed concern last week that a total oil cutoff could hurt the North Korean people.

The final draft adds new language urging “further work to reduce tensions so as to advance the prospects for a comprehensive settlement,” and underscoring “the imperative of achieving the goal of complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner.”

It retains language reaffirming support for long-stalled six-party talks with that goal between North Korea, the U.S., Russia, China, Japan and South Korea.

The final draft also adds language underscoring the Security Council’s commitment to North Korea’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, to “a peaceful and diplomatic solution to the situation,” and “its concern that developments on the Korean Peninsula could have dangerous, large-scale regional security implications.”

The revised resolution retains language on the council’s “determination to take further significant measures” in the event of a new nuclear test or ballistic missile launch.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> China’s largest supplier of fuel to North Korea has halted sales amid growing pressure on Pyongyang, according to Reuters.

State-owned oil giant China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) reportedly suspended exports, citing worries that agents will not be able to provide the up-front payments it requires. Banks and companies involved with North Korean trade are now under increased scrutiny, though it is not clear if sanctions are related to CNPC’s decision.

The isolated northeast Asian country imports almost of its oil and gas from China; most of that comes through CNPC. The risks of doing business with North Korea have grown steadily in recent months as the United States has ratcheted up pressure in response to Pyongyang’s frequent missile launches. CNPC’s move to stop fuel sales results from business risk, according to the Reuters report, rather than from a change in official Chinese policy.

Frequent missile tests and advances in North Korea’s nuclear capabilities have put regional states on edge and created a major foreign policy test for U.S. President Donald Trump. U.N. sanctions forbid the sale of rocket, jet, and certain kinds of aviation fuel, though oil and gas for civilian purposes has not faced restrictions. U.S. officials have floated the idea of an oil embargo as one possible measure to force the rogue regime to roll back its nuclear program.

Without Chinese oil, “North Korea would not survive on its own for three months and everything in North Korea would be paralysed,” Cho Bong-hyun, a specialist on the North Korean economy at Seoul’s IB Bank, told Reuters in April.

The United States might hope to bring Pyongyang to its knees, but for China that would be a nightmare scenario. The last thing Beijing wants is a destabilized nuclear-armed North Korea and millions of destitute refugees pouring over its northern border.

Still, temporary cuts to fuel exports is one way for Beijing to send a clear message to its neighbor. China has previously used such messages to pressure Pyongyang.

In 2003, China closed an oil pipeline supplying North Korea for three days. Chinese officials said the closure was due to technical problems, but diplomats said that the true intent was to put pressure on Pyongyang amid heightened tensions with the United States over its nuclear program. A few months later, North Korea joined six-party talks with the United States.

Beijing has worked to bring its coal-hungry importers in line with U.N. sanctions, essentially banning the import of North Korea coal in February.

But overall trade between China and its northern neighbor actually grew in the first quarter of 2017 despite U.S. pressure. Trump, who had made China the center of his approach to pressuring North Korea, has reportedly grown frustrated with Beijing’s refusal to wield its full influence over Pyongyang. </s> BEIJING: China's commerce ministry late on Friday banned North Korean individuals and enterprises from doing new business in China, in line with United Nations Security Council sanctions passed earlier this month.

New joint venture enterprises, new wholly owned businesses and the expansion of existing entities involving North Korean individuals or companies are prohibited in China, according to a notice released on the ministry's website.

Applications for Chinese new or expanded investment in North Korea by Chinese companies would not be approved, the ministry said. The new measures take effect immediately.

New sanctions by China, Japan, the United States and the United Nations are aimed at pressuring Pyongyang to end its nuclear weapons programme.
China limits petroleum exports and bans imports of textiles from North Korea as part of new sanctions following the latest nuclear test.