China tells U.S. to withdraw sanctions

Beijing warns of strained ties if entities punished over business in North Korea

BEIJING -- China demanded Wednesday that the United States immediately withdraw a package of sanctions on companies and individuals trading with North Korea, warning that the decision by President Donald Trump's administration will damage China-U.S. ties.

The Treasury Department on Tuesday placed sanctions on 10 companies and six individuals from China and Russia that it said had conducted business with North Korea in ways that advanced the country's missile and nuclear weapons program.

But China's Foreign Ministry insisted its government had fully implemented U.N. Security Council resolutions on North Korea and would punish anyone caught violating the Security Council sanctions.

It added that it opposed sanctions outside the framework of the Security Council.

"China especially opposes any country conducting long-arm jurisdiction over Chinese entities and individuals," spokesman Hua Chunying said at a regular news briefing. "Measures taken by the United States are not helpful in solving the problem and unhelpful to mutual trust and cooperation. We ask the United States to stop the relevant wrong practices immediately."

Yet despite China's professed opposition to unilateral sanctions, it has not hesitated to punish other countries through trade if they refuse to do Beijing's bidding.

China is currently engaged in a blockade of South Korean companies because it opposes the deployment of a U.S. missile-defense system, known as Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, in that country.

Among the U.S.-sanctioned companies was Dandong Zhicheng Metallic Material Co., also known as Dandong Chengtai, one of the largest importers of North Korean coal. Its main shareholder was also individually targeted.

In a related complaint filed by the Justice Department on Tuesday, the U.S. government is seeking $4 million from the company, accusing it of importing North Korean coal and then sending a wide array of products -- cellphones, luxury items, rubber and sugar -- to North Korea.

The Security Council recently agreed to a total ban on coal imports from North Korea; in the past, a limited trade had been allowed, provided it was purchased from a sanctioned North Korean company and proved to be for "livelihood purposes."

In practice, though, experts say that loophole was exploited to facilitate a profitable trade that generated $1 billion a year for North Korea.

The Chinese nationalist tabloid the Global Times argued that the United States could face retaliation sooner or later if it continued to impose sanctions that it called a "serious violation of international law" and "certainly unacceptable" to China.

"As far as we are concerned, Washington wants to use such unilateral sanctions to smear China and Russia's international image on issues regarding sanctioning North Korea, painting China and Russia as the destroyers of U.N. sanctions," it said.

China, which accounts for roughly 90 percent of North Korean trade, announced this month that it was suspending imports of iron ore, iron, lead, coal and seafood products from North Korea, to comply with U.N. sanctions.

China is reluctant to do anything that might destabilize the regime, which is a long-standing ally. China blames American hostility toward Pyongyang for forcing the regime to develop its nuclear program, and it is urging dialogue to reduce tensions.

Separately on Wednesday, North Korea's state media released photos that appear to show the designs of one or possibly two new missiles.

Concept diagrams of the missiles were seen hanging on a wall behind leader Kim Jong Un while he visited a plant that makes solid-fuel engines for the country's ballistic-missile program.

One of the photos clearly showed a diagram for a missile called "Pukguksong-3," which appears to be the latest in its Pukguksong, or Polaris, series. The other was harder to discern, though it carried a "Hwasong," or Mars, designation name.

The photos were carried in the morning edition of the Rodong Sinmun, the ruling party's newspaper, and released by the Korean Central News Agency two days after the United States and South Korea began annual military exercises that the North claims are a rehearsal for war.

Tensions on the peninsula generally ratchet up during the maneuvers and a series of larger exercises held each spring.

Michael Duitsman, a research associate at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies, said the first missile has not been seen before.

"The Pukguksong-3 is definitely new," he said in an email.

North Korea successfully tested the submarine-launched Pukguksong-1 in August last year. It followed up with a successful test of the land-based Pukguksong-2 in February this year. Both are believed to have intermediate ranges that could target Japan and the U.S. bases there, but not the mainland United States.

Duitsman said the quality of the pictures made it hard to immediately distinguish what the other missile was -- though he said it was likely either a Hwasong-13 or Hwasong-11.

Hwasong is what North Korea calls most of its missiles, including its only intercontinental ballistic missile -- the Hwasong-14, which it tested last month. That missile is believed to be capable of reaching the U.S. mainland.

"If it is the Hwasong-13, then there has been an enormous change to the design," Duitsman said.

He cautioned that more analysis is needed.

Information for this article was contributed by Simon Denyer, Shirley Feng and Luna Lin of The Washington Post and by Eric Talmadge of The Associated Press.

A Section on 08/24/2017

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