CHINA AND NK’S SANCTIONS

CHINA COMMITTED TO ENFORCING NORTH KOREA SANCTIONS, U.S. SAYS

Bloomberg News

Bloomberg, March 22, 2013

China is committed to making sure United Nations Security Council sanctions against North Korea have an impact, a U.S. Treasury official said after meeting with Chinese officials in Beijing.

The U.S. believes that China sees the North’s recent actions as a threat to its interests, David Cohen, under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, told reporters today. He was referring to a nuclear test the North conducted in February and Security Council sanctions that were imposed in response.

“We have sensed in our meetings yesterday and expect as well today that the Chinese government is fully committed to implementing this resolution in a way that gives it real effect,” Cohen said. “The Chinese government is looking at what’s been happening in North Korea recently as threatening the stability of the peninsula in a real way that implicates Chinese interests.”

China and the U.S. worked together to craft a resolution that imposing tougher sanctions on North Korea at the UN Security Council this month after the nuclear test. China is the North’s biggest trading partner and diplomatic ally.

An editorial in the state-run Global Times newspaper published in February, after the test and before the sanctions, said China must give the North a “friendly warning”

“We must not join the camp of the U.S., Japan and South Korea, or actively cooperate with the U.S.-led sanctions against North Korea,” the editorial said. “To do that would be extremely stupid strategically.”

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