The Chinese government on Tuesday announced a partial ban on trade with North Korea that is in line with the latest U.N. Security Council resolutions, including fresh sanctions, on Pyongyang.
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North Korea can fire a nuclear warhead at South Korea, Japan, China and Russian Federation on a medium-range missile, Seoul said yesterday.
Chinese Commerce Ministry has chose to ban trade with North Korea including import of gold and rare earth metals and export of jet fuel, oil products used to make rocket fuel.
But Beijing has resisted targeting Pyongyang’s fragile economy for fear of provoking the regime’s collapse, potentially leading to a flood of cross-border refugees and ultimately the prospect of U.S. troops stationed on its border in a reunified Korea.
China imported 19.6 million metric tonnes of coal from North Korea previous year, compared with total inbound coal shipments of 204 million tonnes, according to customs data.
Items such as luxury watches, expensive snowmobiles, recreational water vehicles and lead crystal were also added to a long list of luxury goods that North Korea is not allowed to import.
While the CGI effects are admittedly rather bad, Kim Jong-un’s government threatens to raze South Korea’s presidential Blue House and various other government buildings in Seoul to the ground, ending with the warning, “Everything will turn to ashes”.
The official said Seoul has no evidence that North Korea had actually deployed such a nuclear-tipped missile, but the new assessment is the first direct acknowledgement of the North’s growing nuclear prowess. An armistice ended the fighting in the Korean 1950-53 civil war but there was no peace treaty.
The tests took place days after the North’s leader, Kim Jong Un, ordered more tests of ballistic missiles capable of delivering a nuclear warhead. “We are looking into… and closely monitoring the situation”, South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun said during a regular press conference Tuesday.
The report also noted that an opinion survey after North Korea’s third nuclear test in 2013 indicated growing support in South Korea for developing an indigenous nuclear capability “amidst doubt that the United States would use its nuclear weapons to protect South Korea”.
The video, titled Unless South Korea Complies with Our Ultimatum, starts with an warning announced March 26, followed by the image of the North Korean army’s long-range artillery exercises conducted on March 24.
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If confirmed, such reprocessing would represent yet another provocative act that the North has been engaged in recently in defiance of global pressure over its nuclear and missile programs.
