China ‘willing to pay the price for new N Korea sanctions’

BEIJING – Reuters

China will pay the biggest price from the new United Nations sanctions against North Korea because of its close economic relationship with the country, but will always enforce the resolutions, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said.

The United Nations Security Council unanimously imposed new sanctions on North Korea on Aug. 5 that could slash its $3 billion annual export revenue by a third.

Speaking at a regional security forum in Manila on Monday, Wang said the new resolution showed China and the international community’s opposition to North Korea’s continued missile tests, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Aug. 8.

“Owing to China’s traditional economic ties with North Korea, it will mainly be China paying the price for implementing the resolution,” the statement cited Wang as saying.

“But in order to protect the international non-proliferation system and regional peace and stability, China will as before fully and strictly properly implement the entire contents of the relevant resolution.”

China has repeatedly said it is committed to enforcing increasingly tough U.N. resolutions on North Korea, though it has also said what it terms “normal” trade and ordinary North Koreans should not be affected.

The latest U.N. resolution bans North Korean exports of coal, iron, iron ore, lead, lead ore and seafood. It also prohibits countries from increasing the numbers of North Korean labourers currently working abroad, bans new joint ventures with North Korea and any new investment in current joint ventures.

Wang said that apart from the new sanctions, the resolution also made clear that the six party talks process, a stalled dialogue mechanism with North Korea that also includes Russia and Japan, should be restarted.

China appreciated comments earlier this month by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that the United States does not seek to topple the North Korean government and would like dialogue with Pyongyang at some point, Wang added.

The United States does not seek regime change, the collapse of the regime, an accelerated reunification of the peninsula or an excuse to send the U.S. military into North Korea, Tillerson said.

Wang said Tillerson’s “Four Nos” promise was a positive signal.

The Chinese navy and air force, meanwhile, flexed their muscles in live-fire drills in seas adjacent to the Korean Peninsula, the defense ministry said.

The “large-scale” exercises were being conducted in the seas and skies off China’s east coast in the Yellow Sea and Bohai Gulf, and included the firing of dozens of missiles, a notice posted late on Aug. 7 on the Ministry of Defence website said.

Naval and air force assets including dozens of ships, more than 10 aircraft, submarines and an unspecified number of coastal defence personnel took part in the drills, which the ministry said were aimed at testing weapons and honing the military’s abilities in conducting coastal assaults and intercepting air targets.