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China's North Korea traders suffer mounting customs delays

TRADERS in Dandong, China, report customs delays as cross-border business continues with North Korea in accordance with the 236-page UN sanctions list of goods imposed after the Kim Jong Un government conducted its fifth nuclear weapons test.

Sales of some permitted goods have been affected by apparently tougher economic conditions across the border in North Korea, which refuses to yield to pressure.

Gao Shengye said his Chinese trading company's sales of steel and other products with potential dual use applications had been halted by the sanctions, reported London's Financial Times.

"Trade in autos, rice, beans and cooking oils have also been affected because sometimes they can's pay us," he said.

In Dandong, the Chinese border city on the bank of the Yalu River through which about 70 per cent of Sino-North Korean trade passes, dozens of trucks clogged the city centre, awaiting entry to a walled-off Chinese customs facility for final checks before crossing the Friendship Bridge into North Korea.

Most of their freight was hidden in containers or under tarpaulins, although some flatbed trucks made no attempt to conceal loads including steel pipes and industrial equipment.

At a much larger staging area on Dandong's northwest outskirts, hundreds of additional North Korea-bound vehicles waited their turn to continue into the city centre and then across the Yalu into North Pyongan province.

Guards prevented visitors from entering the staging area. But many of the trucks were being loaded in the open, revealing the huge range of products -from apples to lumber - that North Korea still imports from China.

US President Donald Trump said that the Chinese government could, and should, do more to rein in Mr Kim's nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

"China is very much the economic lifeline to North Korea," he said. "So while nothing is easy, if they want to solve the North Korean problem, they will."

On the Australian leg of his 10-day regional tour, US Vice President Mike Pence implied that Beijing was already doing more to apply pressure to North Korea. "We are encouraged by the steps that China has taken so far," said Mr Pence.

The US and its allies are maintaining the military pressure on Pyongyang as well as urging China to use its trade ties to rein in North Korea's nuclear ambitions. On Sunday, the Japanese navy confirmed that two of its destroyers would rendezvous with the US aircraft carrier Carl Vinson for exercises in the western Pacific.