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World News See other World News Articles Title: What really happened in Security Council: China REJECTED oil embargo on North Korea China to continue supplying North Korea with crude oil at previous levels; will continue cross border trade It is now clear that ever since North Korea carried out its Hwasong 15 ICBM launch complex three party negotiations between the US, China and Russia have been underway in great secrecy in order to agree a further sanctions resolution in the UN Security Council against North Korea. Almost certainly the two recent telephone conversations between US President Trump and Russian President Putin have touched on this. The Duran recommends using WP Engine >> The unusual secrecy in which the negotiations were conducted meant that when the sanctions resolution was finally agreed and was voted for unanimously by the UN Security Council it came as something of a surprise. In the run up to the vote the US has however been making fully clear what sort of pressure it wanted the UN Security Council and China specifically to impose on North Korea: a total embargo on all supplies of oil to North Korea along with a naval blockade and an effective cessation of all trade between North Korea and the outside world. The important to take away from the UN Security Council meeting is that China again rejected these demands. Here it is important to make a number of points about China’s deliveries of crude oil to North Korea. Start your own website here >> Firstly, crude oil is about the only product North Korea needs to import in order to keep its economy going which it cannot produce itself. I say this though it is known that North Korea has been stockpiling crude oil in anticipation of a possible future embargo of crude oil deliveries to itself and would probably be able to keep its economy going for some time albeit at a reduced rate if crude oil were indeed cut off. By contrast North Korea is able to refine crude oil and can sustain its economy if refined oil products such as petroleum are cut off, provided it continues to be supplied to it in sufficient quantity. I would add briefly and in parenthesis that the Germans in the 1930s perfected a technology for making synthetic oil from coal, which North Korea produces itself and of which it has no shortage. The procedure is however complicated and expensive and comes with environmental cost. There is no information that North Korea has copied it, though presumably over time it could do so. Secondly, all crude oil which North Korea imports comes from China. Thirdly, it appears that China does not actually require payment from North Korea for this crude oil, which is provided essentially as a gift. The text of the latest sanctions resolution voted for unanimously by the UN Security Council is provided at the end of this article. Its key provision is paragraph 4 which caps crude oil deliveries to North Korea at four million barrels for any twelve month period. Not only does this however fall well short of a total oil embargo. It is the same amount that China supplied to North Korea last year. In other words China has again rejected the US demand for a total oil embargo, and specifically for a total embargo on all crude oil supplies. Moreover the text of the resolution shows that China has also rejected the US demand for a naval blockade of North Korea. Instead a complex system of inspections of North Korean ships suspected of trading in prohibited products has been introduced, which however will be subject to ultimate supervision by the UN Security Council itself. The resolution will however significantly toughen economic conditions in North Korea. The key point is that though North Korea is able to refine its own petroleum, it must now do so from the crude oil it imports, which is capped at last year’s levels, since imports of refined oil products such as petroleum have been almost entirely stopped. The point is explained clearly in a commentary by China’s official Xinhua news agency Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 1.
#1. To: Ada (#0)
Good article. Ada. I've heard it reliably reported that the oil pipeline to North Korea from China is pretty danged ancient, and if it's turned off entirely, they may not be able to reactivate the system. (Mighta been a report from Charles R. Smith - don't hold me to that.) Anyway, the proposed embargo would be a reprise of what the West did with Japan in the 1940s. In that case, you can expect fireworks.
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