On 5 April 2016, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce and the General Administration of Customs published a list of products that are embargoed in trade with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (‘DPRK’).

The embargo, which covers both import from and export to DPRK, is restricted to a small number of products such as minerals and fuels. In particular, importing coal, iron, gold ores, titanium ores, vanadium ores, or rare earth from DPRK is prohibited, as well as exporting aircraft fuels such as gasoline, naphtha, or kerosene to DPRK.

Since China is an important partner for DPRK (natural resources reportedly constituted 71.4% of DPRK’s total export to China in 2011), the sanction will probably affect the North Korean economy.