Japan and the United
States are mulling over a proposal to include export restrictions on North
Korean textile products in a new UN
Security Council sanctions resolution, a Japanese news agency reported
recently. The planned move aims at cutting off the communist state’s sources of
foreign currency as textile goods are one of its major exports.
This follows Pyongyang’s firing of a ballistic
missile over northern Japan on August 29. The apparent size of the North Korean
textiles business makes it a potential target for future sanctions, experts
say. Analysts feel the current sanctions on North
Korean coal, iron ore and seafood imply garments would make up a larger share
of trade between the two
countries.
The exports of North Korean textile products,
believed mostly to China, was $752 million last year, about 30 per cent of its
total exports, according to the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, a
South Korean Government organization. China reportedly accounts for about
nine-tenths of North Korea''s foreign trade.
Chinese companies are stepping up their use of
North Korean factories to make clothes that are then stamped as ‘Made in China’
and exported overseas, as per a report by a top global news
wire. Garments are produced by joint ventures involving both sides or by North
Korean companies under contract to Chinese firms.
Source: Japan News, Japan Monday, 04 September 2017