Chinese customs officials in Dandong have stopped processing North Korean trade applications since late last month. The disruption may stem from the cooling of China-North Korea relations as Pyongyang strengthens ties with Russia.
When North Korean traders in China wanted to ship goods to North Korea, they would declare the items to Chinese customs as personal items for a move to a new home and easily obtain a shipping permit.
Because Chinese customs authorities do not open or inspect boxes labeled as personal belongings for a move, these North Korean traders had little trouble shipping electronic goods and luxury items that are prohibited under sanctions against North Korea.
In this way, North Korean merchants have been able to ship various household appliances – including refrigerators, flat-screen televisions, water purifiers, car batteries, and electric stoves – to the North while declaring them to customs authorities as personal effects for a move and making a handsome profit on the side.
But for more than a week now, since the end of last month, Chinese customs authorities have stopped issuing permits for items declared as personal effects for a move.
“For a while, we were able to send sanctioned items such as electronic equipment and auto parts to North Korea by declaring them as personal belongings for a move. But now customs officials will not accept trade applications for anything labeled as such,” a source in China told Daily NK recently.
But it is not only North Korean traders who are being inconvenienced by the change. North Korean officials on assignment in China who are about to return home are also not allowed to ship their personal belongings back to the North.
“An official from the Ministry of Physical Culture and Sports who was working in Tianjin could not get a shipping permit for personal items he wanted to take back to North Korea,” the source said.
The items the official wanted to take home included a flat-screen TV, an electric blanket and a mini-refrigerator.
Labeling a shipment of goods as personal items for a move has been a reliable way to clear Chinese customs, which is why the current predicament comes as such a shock to North Korean traders and officials.
This has led some North Korean traders in China to speculate that China’s changing attitude toward trade is an expression of its displeasure with North Korea’s increasingly cozy relationship with Russia.
“China has been gradually tightening controls on trade as its relations with North Korea have grown more tense, and now it’s restricting individual shipments of personal items for a move,” the source said. “For now, North Korean traders are trying to figure out how to send goods to the North, but they’re also worried that China will continue to put the brakes on shipments of goods.”
Daily NK works with a network of sources in North Korea, China, and elsewhere. For security reasons, their identities remain anonymous.
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