China backed the sanctions imposed on North Korea over its nuclear development. It also explains why they failed

 China backed the sanctions imposed on North Korea over its nuclear development. It also explains why they failed

Chinese employers assist North Korean workers in finding employment outside, from low-cost laborers to highly compensated IT professionals. Even North Korean painters are said to perform 12-hour shifts in the strongly guarded enclosure of a Beijing art museum, producing paintings portraying idyllic scenes of life under communism that fetch thousands of dollars apiece.

Chinese ships transport commodities sanctioned by North Korea to Chinese ports, while Chinese intermediaries launder the profits of North Korean hackers' cyber-heists.

Chinese employers assist North Korean workers in finding employment outside, from low-cost laborers to highly compensated IT professionals. Even North Korean painters are said to perform 12-hour shifts in the strongly guarded enclosure of a Beijing art museum, producing paintings portraying idyllic scenes of life under communism that fetch thousands of dollars apiece.

According to an Associated Press review of United Nations reports, court records, as well as expert interviews, that's all a component of what international authorities say is an increasing amount of evidence showing Beijing is assisting cash-strapped North Korea in evading a wide range of international sanctions meant to impede Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program.

Regarding the connections between China and sanctions evasion, Aaron Arnold, a sanctions specialist at the Royal United Services Institute and a former member of a UN panel on North Korea, said they are undeniable. It's difficult to argue that this isn't purposeful at this point.

Since the 1950–53 Korean War, China and Pyongyang have maintained a tense relationship. Experts argue that even while China is concerned about a nuclear threat at its doorstep, it does not want the government of its neighbor to fall.

China sees North Korea as a defense against the United States, which has a sizable military presence in South Korea.

Beijing has always said that it upholds the sanctions that it has backed ever since North Korea began conducting nuclear weapons tests and has firmly refuted any arguments to the contrary.

A recent letter to the UN from a Chinese ambassador said, "China has been wholeheartedly strictly implementing the (UN Security Council) resolutions," adding that his nation has suffered significant losses in the process. However, Beijing has been working to loosen those same sanctions in recent times, and after Pyongyang's nuclear test last year, it blocked fresh measures.

A prominent figure in the governing Chinese party gave a clear illustration of China's ambivalence towards sanctions this summer when he applauded alongside North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un at a Pyongyang military display. Trucks armed with weaponry the dictatorship shouldn't have, including nuclear-capable missiles, rolled past the two men.

The Russian defense minister accompanied them, ostensibly as part of a fresh attempt by the Kremlin to fortify relations with North Korea as it struggles with its invasion of Ukraine. While fresh information indicates that North Korean weaponry were probably launched by Hamas militants during their October 7 attack on Israel, the US has accused North Korea of providing artillery rounds and rockets to Russia.

However, according to court documents and international assessments, China has been accused of aiding North Korea defy sanctions more often than Russia and a few other nations. China disobeys sanctions on North Korea that it voted for and claims won't work out of concern that they will. Joshua Stanton, a human rights campaigner and lawyer who assisted in the creation of US sanctions legislation on North Korea, said that it doesn't violate them.

According to an AP examination, most of the individuals on the US government's list of North Korea-related sanctions in recent years had connections to China. Many of them are North Koreans who work for purported Chinese front firms; others are Chinese nationals who, according to US investigators, either get military material or launder money for North Korea.

In addition to sanctions, China is often linked to US criminal charges of people or organizations supporting the dictatorship in North Korea.

This is particularly true in situations involving North Korea's highly skilled hackers, who according to analysts have taken away digital cash valued at over USD 3 billion in recent years.

According to an indictment earlier this year, a Chinese intermediary assisted in converting cryptocurrencies that the regime's most skilled hackers had stolen into US dollars.

Additionally, a lawsuit similar to this one was brought in 2020, alleging that two Chinese brokers had laundered over $100 million in digital currency that North Korea had seized.

North Korean hackers may get around know-your-customer regulations that apply to banks and other financial exchanges by using these over-the-counter brokers.

Records indicate that North Korea's acquisition of items and technologies that are forbidden, as well as its acquisition of US dollars and access to the global financial system, are largely dependent on China's financial system and Chinese enterprises.

Anthony Ruggiero, a former senior US Treasury official, said that the reason the Chinese banks are less strict is because the Chinese government is not pressuring them to do so. Customs documents referenced in a think tank paper show that in 2015, North Korea purchased more than USD 250,000 worth of aluminum oxide—a substance that may be used to produce nuclear weapons fuel—from a Chinese business.

According to US prosecutors, the same business was responsible for a significant portion of all commerce between North Korea and China; among its clients was the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, which was putting in bids for North Korean projects. Photographs from North Korean military exercises have shown the nuclear missiles of the state being moved on launchers built on Chinese heavy-duty truck chassis.

China informed the UN expert panel that North Korea had pledged to transport wood using the trucks.

China routinely disregards mountains of satellite imagery and ship tracking information that were gathered by a UN panel of experts and depict Chinese-flagged ships docking with North Korean ships and exchanging cargo.

UN restrictions prohibit North Korean ships from engaging in ship-to-ship transfers, which are often carried out to obfuscate the flow of items that are subject to sanctions, such as oil imports and coal exports. This summer, the US and other prominent democracies wrote China to express their disappointment over satellite images purporting to show cargo ships that have been known to violate sanctions operating in Chinese ports and territorial seas.

The letter cautions that China's commitment to honoring its UN duties is being carefully watched by the international community. China ignores these results, typically declaring that its own inquiries found no proof of misconduct and offering no more details or justification.

Beijing said last year that it was unable to provide Chinese port of call information for many North Korean ships due to the UN panel's failure to supply the ships' IMO numbers, which are distinctive numbers painted on big ships.

It is easy to find those numbers by utilizing the name of the ship. Former UN panel of experts coordinator Eric Penton-Voak claimed that such justifications were absurd given China's extensive monitoring capabilities and demonstrated the governing communist party's disdain for upholding the sanctions it had committed to.

He said it was only a desperate attempt to avoid having to respond. China said it was unable to take action because the UN panel's recommendation was too ambiguous, in response to its request that Beijing look into Chinese clothing firms that were possibly using North Korean laborers.

Beijing said that the UN panel had only given the corporate names in Korean and English. China sent a response to the UN panel stating that only Chinese is used in its company registration system.