Official data appears to confirm signs of a decline in cross-border trade.
BEIJING — China’s trade with North Korea fell sharply in September as sanctions finally began to bite, data released by the Chinese government on Friday showed.
China says it has implemented successive rounds of sanctions agreed by the U. N. Security Council meant to pressure Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear and missile program. China is North Korea’s economic lifeline and Beijing’s role in the sanctions effort is critical.
On Friday, China’s General Administration of Customs announced that China’s imports from North Korea fell 37.9 percent in September, the seventh successive monthly decline. China’s exports to North Korea dropped a more modest 6.7 percent in September, Huang Songping, spokesman for the customs department, told a news conference.
Although there is room for considerable skepticism about official Chinese data — and the numbers can swing wildly month to month — there is reason to believe there has been a recent slowdown in trade, experts say.
Chinese traders in the border city of Dandong told The Washington Post earlier this month that they were feeling the effect of the sanctions, which were being imposed with unprecedented determination by the authorities.
