BEIJING • China is buying less from North Korea as it implements United Nations sanctions aimed at reining in the nuclear ambitions of Mr Kim Jong Un, according to a Chinese Customs official..
BEIJING • China is buying less from North Korea as it implements United Nations sanctions aimed at reining in the nuclear ambitions of Mr Kim Jong Un, according to a Chinese Customs official.
Imports fell 13.2 per cent to US$880 million (S$1.2 billion) in the six months to June 30 from the same period a year earlier, the Customs bureau said yesterday.
« China has always been strictly abiding by the UN Security Council resolutions and related laws to impose sanctions on North Korea, » Mr Huang Songping, spokesman for the General Administration of Customs, said at a briefing in Beijing.
China is under pressure from the United States and others to show it is complying with UN sanctions designed to put an economic squeeze on Mr Kim’s weapons programmes.
US President Donald Trump said on July 5 that China had not done enough to pressure its neighbour, after Pyongyang successfully tested its first intercontinental ballistic missile the day before. Mr Trump also said China’s trade with North Korea had grown nearly 40 per cent in the first quarter.
Mr Huang said yesterday that total trade rose 10.5 per cent to US$2.55 billion in the first six months of this year compared with the same period a year ago.
