Has China Finally Gotten Serious With Sanctions on North Korea?
At least on the surface for international consumption it appears that China has finally gotten serious with implementing sanctions on the Kim regime, but I have to wonder how stringently they will stop all the black market and shady ways they can move money and goods into North Korea?:
Even before the Security Council passed Resolution 2270, the UN’s harshest sanctions on North Korea, Chinese officials acted. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China’s largest bank, reportedly froze the accounts of North Korean customers in Dandong, the Chinese city across the Yalu River from the North. It appears Bank of China, China Merchants Bank, and Bank of Dandong also dropped North Koreans.
After 2270, China put 31 of Pyongyang’s vessels on a “blacklist” and prevented one of them from docking. Two others are now sailing away from Chinese ports.
Because at least 75 percent of the North’s trade is with China, Beijing could bring down its ally if it continues to enforce the Security Council’s new measures.
The Kim regime, therefore, could be confronted with “an existential crisis,” Scarlatoiu says. Wu Dawei, China’s always discreet point man on North Korea, seems to agree. In comments made a few days ago to Pulse News, a South Korean site, he said the North “signed its own death warrant.”The Kimster, therefore, has much to think about. One thing we know: He’s not going to sit back and accept his demise. So what will he do? [Daily Beast]
The whole article is worth reading at the link.
