Sino-DPRK Relations

Lumps of Coal: How China’s Demand for Russia’s Natural Resources Affects North Korea Sanctions Enforcement

By | August 13, 2017

Anthony Rinna investigates the Russian role in the DPRK sanctions system, focusing on the country’s potential to export high-quality coal to China as a replacement for the DPRK.

On Contradiction: The PRC Foreign Ministry and “China Responsibility Theory”

By | July 15, 2017

When a spokesman pushed back against the Trump administration assertions that China is in the driver’s seat with North Korea, Washington had no response. What was between the lines of this statement from Beijing?

Targeting North Korea, Scratching Russia: HR 1644

By | June 05, 2017

Russia’s economic interactions with North Korea are attracting the attention of the United States. In May, a bill emerged from the US House of Representatives that targets labor exports and the activities of North Korean vessels using third-country (including Russian) ports. Russia is not pleased. Anthony Rinna investigates.

Buckling Down in Dandong

By | May 14, 2017

As Xi Jinping waxes poetic at the “One Belt, One Road” summit in Beijing, we investigate messy realities in the the Chinese border city that would be the ideal hub for any North Korean participation.

Falling Short: Financial Sanctions and Sino-North Korean Border Trade

By | April 06, 2017

Kevin Gray interrogates the usefulness of financial sanctions against the DPRK, highlighting ways in which such sanctions impact the development of the licit and illicit border economies.