Chinese leaders agreed to tighten implementation of international sanctions imposed on North Korea, according to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, despite skepticism in the U.S. that such promises will be kept.
“We reaffirmed our commitment to implement in full all relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions,” Tillerson said Wednesday following a round of meetings with his Chinese counterparts. “[W]e both agreed that our companies should not do business with any U.N.-designated North Korean entities in accordance with these resolutions.”
President Trump’s national security team has worked to persuade China to increase pressure on the rogue regime, following a number of nuclear weapons program tests and provocative statements by dictator Kim Jong Un. They’ve enjoyed limited success, however, as China has a lengthy history of providing economic lifelines to the North Korean regime.
Tillerson, while touting China’s promise to cut off funding to North Korea, expressed a note of uncertainty about whether the Communist power would follow through. “Countries around the world and in the U.N. Security Council are joining in this effort and we hope China will do their part as well,” he said.
China has disappointed Western powers in recent months, following the imposition of new sanctions on North Korea’s coal industry. China’s importation of North Korean coal admittedly dropped, despite uneven implementation of the sanctions, but they softened the blow through other trade deals.
“Since January, China’s imports of iron ore from North Korea have quadrupled from year-earlier levels despite a ban on such imports, in principle,” Nikkei Asian Review, a business journal based in Japan, Nikkei Asian Review reported in June. “Since it was slapped with a strict embargo on coal exports late last year, North Korea has apparently increased its iron ore exports to make up for the loss of foreign currency.”
Trump declared China ineffective in restraining the regime in the run-up to Wednesday’s summit. “While I greatly appreciate the efforts of President Xi & China to help with North Korea, it has not worked out,” the president tweeted. “At least I know China tried!”
