Beijing registers sharp cuts in exports and imports in June, extending nearly a year of declines
China’s imports from North Korea plunged 92.6 per cent in June compared with a year earlier under United Nations sanctions imposed to stop Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programmes, the customs agency said on Friday.
Exports of Chinese oil and other goods to the North fell 40.6 per cent, a customs agency spokesman, Huang Songping, said. He gave no financial totals.
The trade curbs have remained in place despite diplomatic contacts including US President Donald Trump’s June meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
American Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who visited Pyongyang this month, said sanctions would not be lifted until Kim followed through on his pledge to scrap its nuclear weapons.
China provides nearly all of the isolated North’s trade and energy supplies. Beijing has imposed limits on oil exports and sharply reduced North Korean revenue by banning purchases of its textiles, seafood and coal.
Beijing was long Pyongyang’s diplomatic protector but has supported the UN sanctions out of frustration at what Chinese leaders see as their neighbour’s increasingly reckless behaviour.
Beijing also ordered North Korean-owned restaurants and other businesses in China, an important revenue source, to close.
