China is trying to punish ally North Korea for its nuclear and missile tests, stepping up inspections of North Korean-bound cargo in a calibrated effort to send a message of Chinese pique without further provoking a testy Pyongyang government.
Freight handlers and trading companies at ports and cities near the North Korean border complain of more rigorous inspections and surprise checks that are raising the costs to doing business with an often unpredictable North Korea. Machinery, luxury goods and daily necessities such as rice and cooking oil are among the targeted products, the companies said, and business is suffering.
“Some business orders we don’t dare take. We don’t dare do that business because we fear that after the orders are taken, we will end up unable to ship them,” said a Mr Hu, an executive with Dalian Fast International Logistics Co. in the northeastern port city of Dalian, across the Yellow Sea from the North Korean port of Nampo. Hu said the company’s business is off by as much as 20 per cent this year.
North Korea’s economic lifeline, China is showing signs of getting tough with an impoverished neighbour it has long supported with trade, aid and diplomatic protection for fear of setting off a collapse.
The moves to crimp, but not cut off trade with North Korea come as Beijing falls under increased scrutiny to enforce new UN sanctions passed after last month’s nuclear test, Pyongyang’s third. Targeted in the sanctions are the bank financing and bulk smuggling of cash that could assist North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs as well as the luxury goods that sustain the ruling elite around leader Kim Jong Un. Pyongyang has reacted with fury and threatening rhetoric against South Korea and the US
US officials in Beijing for two days of talks to lobby China on enforcement said Friday that they were heartened by Chinese expressions of resolve. Spurring Beijing to cooperate, the US officials said, is a concern that North Korean behaviour had begun threatening China’s interests in a region vital to its economic and security.