WASHINGTON: A U. S. congressional commission said on Wednesday (Nov 14) that China appears to have relaxed enforcement of sanctions on North Korea and called\u2026<\/b>
\nWASHINGTON: A U. S. congressional commission said on Wednesday (Nov 14) that China appears to have relaxed enforcement of sanctions on North Korea and called on the Treasury Department to provide a report on Chinese compliance within 180 days.
In its annual report, the U. S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission said the Treasury report should include a classified list of Chinese financial institutions, businesses, and officials involved in trading with North Korea that could be subject to future sanctions.
The bipartisan commission said China had appeared to enforce sanctions on North Korea more thoroughly than in the past in 2017 and in early 2018.
But this effort appeared to have relaxed since a thaw in relations between China and North Korea as the long-time ally of Beijing began to engage with the United States this year.
\u00ab\u00a0China appears to have eased off sanctions enforcement, despite its promises to keep sanctions intact until North Korea gets rid of its nuclear weapons,\u00a0\u00bb the report said.
\u00ab\u00a0North Korean workers have returned to jobs in northeast China, economic activity and tourism have picked up in border towns, flights in both directions have resumed, and the two countries have conducted high-profile official exchanges to discuss economic development,\u00a0\u00bb it said.
It said China always left \u00ab\u00a0key lifelines\u00a0\u00bb in place for North Korea and there were \u00ab\u00a0holes\u00a0\u00bb in enforcement that included \u00ab\u00a0ship to ship\u00a0\u00bb transfers of goods.
The report said the Treasury Department, in recommending Chinese sanctions targets, should also \u00ab\u00a0explain the potential broader impacts of sanctioning those entities.\u00a0\u00bb
The United Nations Security Council has unanimously boosted sanctions on North Korea since 2006 in a bid to choke off funding for its weapons programs. The United States has imposed sanctions in the past on Chinese and other foreign firms for violating those steps.
China and Russia have said the Security Council should reward Pyongyang for \u00ab\u00a0positive developments\u00a0\u00bb after U. S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met in June and Kim pledged to work toward denuclearisation.
China’s top diplomat and politburo member Yang Jiechi said after talks in Washington last week that China would \u00ab\u00a0continue to enforce strictly relevant U. N. Security Council resolutions.\u00a0\u00bb
Trump has suggested China may be exerting negative pressure on U. S. efforts to press North Korea to denuclearize in response to U. S. trade measures on Beijing.
The U. S. Treasury did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the commission report, but the State Department said it expected all U. N. states to implement sanctions resolutions until North Korea gave up its nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n