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Catherine Wong

Robert Delaney

Beijing will support tougher UN sanctions against North Korea following Pyongyang’s latest missile test on Wednesday as the reclusive state poses an increasing threat to China’s own security, according to diplomatic observers.
A full oil embargo was unlikely, but China would endorse stronger sanctions than those previous adopted by the UN Security Council in September, they said.
The assessment came after US President Donald Trump asked his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to halt all oil shipments to North Korea to help stop its neighbour’s nuclear weapons programme.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang did not directly respond to Trump’s call, only saying that Beijing upholds UN resolutions and supports the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.

North Korea said the missile it tested on Wednesday was the most powerful and advanced it has developed.
Jia Qingguo, the dean of the School of International Studies at Peking University, said Beijing realised additional sanctions were needed and would tighten oil exports to the North if it continued to pursue its nuclear programme.


But China would continue to oppose unilateral sanctions ­imposed by the US on companies and individuals with links to North Korea, Jia said. If Washington asked other nations to follow suit, Beijing would not interfere, he said.
What photos reveal about North Korea’s new Hwasong-15 ballistic missile
China would still oppose the US from imposing unilateral sanctions on companies and people with links to North Korea, but Beijing would not stop the US from asking other nations to take similar actions, he said.




The US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, told a UN Security Council emergency meeting that stopping North Korea’s oil supply was a “pivotal step in the world’s effort to stop this international pariah”. China’s deputy UN ambassador Wu Haitao said the US should have heeded a joint Sino-Russian “suspension-for-suspension” proposal, in which the US would halt joint military exercises with South Korea in exchange for a halt in North Korea’s missile testing.
Trump asks Xi Jinping to cut off North Korea’s oil supply
China supported UN sanctions against North Korea in September, which restricted petroleum product supply to North Korea and banned the future hire of North Korean workers on projects overseas.
Beijing was reluctant to totally shut down oil supplies to North Korea, fearing it would topple the regime and lead to an influx of refugees. North Korea acts as a buffer between China and South Korea, a close US military ally. 
Chinese customs data last week showed that China did not export any diesel and petrol to North Korea in October. It was the first time since July 2015 that China sold no petrol to the North and first time since August 2016 it sold no diesel.
Zhang Liangui, a professor of international strategic research at the Communist Party’s Central Party School, said sanctions could help rein in Pyongyang.
Sanctions are useful, but the existing ones are not forceful enough and it will take time for us to see the impact,” he said.
“I think it won’t take long for the UN to come up with new sanctions that will be tougher than the previous ones.”
US President Donald Trump spoke with Xi Jinping by phone on Wednesday, during which he demanded China step up efforts to restrain Pyongyang.
North Korea tests powerful new ICBM, claims it can strike all continental US
Matthew Kroenig, a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank, said Trump’s request for a complete oil embargo was an implicit threat.
“He’s saying China needs to do more or the United States will continue to increase sanctions on the Chinese firms propping up the North,” he said.
“This approach does risk increased confrontation with China, but if North Korea’s nuclear programme is the administration’s top priority then it may be worth it.
“North Korea is entirely dependent on foreign oil and without it, its economy would grind to a halt in weeks or months. So, it is likely that such a move, if put in place, would force [North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un] to the table to discuss denuclearisation,” said Kroenig.


North Korea ratifies defence treaty with Russia

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Why South Korea needs to reassess its hardline stance against Pyongyang

‘Heroic nation’: how North Korea’s troop deployment to Russia is changing attitudes in China

North Korea nuclear crisis

China will back tougher sanctions as North Korea threat grows, say analysts

A picture released by North Korea's official news agency showing the launch of the Hwasong-15 missile. Photo: AFP

This photo taken on November 21, 2017 shows a general view of North Korean coal piled up on a dockside at the port in Rason. At the northeastern tip of North Korea, where the isolated, nuclear-armed country meets its giant neighbours China and Russia, United Nations sanctions on the regime over its weapons programmes are having an impact. And with the North facing further sanctions following its ICBM missile test on November 29, things are unlikely to get any easier for traders involved with the remote region's Rason Special Economic Zone (SEZ). / AFP PHOTO / Ed JONES / TO GO WITH NKorea-China-trade-sanction-diplomacy, FOCUS by Sebastien BERGER

Donald Trump asks Xi Jinping to cut off North Korea’s oil supply to stop nuclear programme

This photo released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shows the launching of the Hwansong-15 missile which North Korea said is capable of reaching all parts of the US. Photo: KCNA via AFP

Donald Trump urges Xi Jinping to denuclearise North Korea, calls for more sanctions after latest ICBM test

The US president insisted in a Twitter post that the situation would be ‘handled’

FILE PHOTO: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un watches the launch of a Hwasong-12 missile in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on September 16, 2017. KCNA via REUTERS/File Photo ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS PICTURE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. REUTERS IS UNABLE TO INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE AUTHENTICITY, CONTENT, LOCATION OR DATE OF THIS IMAGE. NO THIRD PARTY SALES. SOUTH KOREA OUT

(FILES) This file photo taken on November 9, 2017 shows US President Donald Trump (L) shaking hands with China's President Xi Jinping at the end of a press conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Trump on November 29, 2017, spoke to Xi and called for Beijing to use "all available levers" to press North Korea. The White House said that Trump and Xi discussed North Korea's latest ballistic missile test, with Trump again pressing China to take a tougher line against its neighbor. / AFP PHOTO / Fred DUFOUR

In this Saturday, April 15, 2017, file photo, what analysts believe could be the North Korean Hwasong 12 is paraded across Kim Il Sung Square during a military parade in Pyongyang, North Korea. Threatening to fire a volley of missiles toward a major U.S. military hub _ and the home to 160,000 American civilians _ may seem like a pretty bad move for a country that is seriously outgunned and has an awful lot to lose. But pushing the envelope, or just threatening to do so, is what North Korea does best. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E, File)

This photo taken on November 28, 2017 and released on November 29, 2017 by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un signing an order document of a test-fire of the inter-continental ballistic rocket Hwasong-15. North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un said on November 29 his country had achieved full nuclear statehood after what he said was the successful test of a new missile capable of striking anywhere in the United States. / AFP PHOTO / KCNA VIA KNS / - / South Korea OUT / REPUBLIC OF KOREA OUT ---EDITORS NOTE--- RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO/KCNA VIA KNS" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS THIS PICTURE WAS MADE AVAILABLE BY A THIRD PARTY. AFP CAN NOT INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE AUTHENTICITY, LOCATION, DATE AND CONTENT OF THIS IMAGE. THIS PHOTO IS DISTRIBUTED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED BY AFP. /

South Koreans watch a news broadcast reporting on North Korea's latest ballistic missile launch, at a station in Seoul. The long range missile crashed into Japan's exclusive economic zone after reaching a record 4,000km altitude. Photo: EPA