The United States, the European Union, Canada and other countries have requested China’s “assistance” to prevent North Korea from circumventing UN oil sanctions using Chinese territorial waters, according to a letter seen by AFP on Friday.
Their ambassadors to the UN in this letter request “the assistance” of their Chinese counterpart Zhang Jun “to stop the maritime activities of (North Korea) which seek to escape the sanctions imposed by the resolutions of the Security Council” of the United Nations.
“In particular, we are concerned about the repeated presence of multiple oil tankers” identified by the UN Sanctions Panel of Experts “who are using your national waters in Sansha Bay as a refuge to facilitate their trade in sanctioned petroleum products” to North Korea, the letter said.
The latter is signed by the ambassadors to the UN of Australia, Canada, France, the EU, Germany, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The document specifies that satellite images will also be transmitted which show that “these practices have continued in the jurisdiction of China” in 2022 and 2023.
“We repeat our previous request to China to inspect vessels for evidence of illegal oil trafficking” and to “expel” its vessels from its waters “as soon as possible” if they return to Sansha Bay.
North Korea has been subject to international sanctions since 2006, which were increased three times in 2017.
The measures taken that year unanimously by the Security Council to compel Pyongyang to interrupt its nuclear and ballistic weapons programs notably limit oil imports from North Korea.
Since 2017, the Security Council has been unable to come to a united position.
In May 2022, China and Russia vetoed a resolution imposing new sanctions on Pyongyang, and no Council resolution or statement has been adopted since, despite several missile launches by North Korea, including again on Saturday.
The United States in particular regularly accuses Beijing and Moscow of serving as a “shield” for the North Korean regime and of encouraging new firings by preventing a united response from the Council.
“It is essential for the international community, including China, to send a strong and united message that North Korea must refrain from provocation, respect its obligations” related to Security Council resolutions and commit “towards the total, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean peninsula”, insists the letter sent to the Chinese ambassador.