China Cuts Ties With North Korean Bank

Chinese analysts said that the Bank of China’s move carried clear diplomatic significance at a time when the Obama administration has been urging China to limit its longtime support for the North Korean government. The Bank of China’s action also dovetails with a longstanding American effort to target the North Korean government’s access to foreign currency. Most countries’ banks already refuse to have any financial dealings with North Korea, making the Bank of China’s role particularly important.

“I personally don’t believe that this would have been a business decision by the bank alone and it’s probably a signal from the government to reflect its views on North Korea,” said Cai Jian, a professor and the deputy director of the Center for Korean Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai.

“This appears to be a step by the government to show that it’s willing to cooperate with the international community in strengthening sanctions or perhaps taking steps against illicit North Korean financial transactions,” he said.

Ruan Zongze, a former Chinese diplomat in Washington who is now a vice president of the China Institute of International Studies in Beijing, said that the Chinese government was responding to a recent United Nations resolution imposing further sanctions on North Korea after its nuclear and ballistic missile tests and was not responding to American pressure. He noted that the Chinese government had recently encouraged state-controlled enterprises to follow the resolution in their dealings with North Korea.

“This is, I think, one of the concrete actions taken by China, that we will surely follow what the U.N. requires,” he said in a telephone interview.

In a single-sentence statement on Tuesday afternoon, the Bank of China said that it “has already issued a bank account closing notice to North Korea’s Foreign Trade Bank, and has ceased accepting funds transfer business related to this bank account.”

A spokeswoman for the bank declined to say whether money in the account would be frozen or would be returned to North Korea. The spokeswoman, who insisted that her name not be used in keeping with a bank policy, said that the account had been closed by the end of April.

The Bank of China was the overseas banking arm of China’s central bank until the 1980s and is still majority owned by the Chinese government, playing an important role in diplomatic and financial policy.

A succession of United States administrations has pressed China for many years to rein in the nuclear program of North Korea, a client state that China has long supported financially and diplomatically as a bulwark against South Korea and the American military forces based there. China has been reluctant until now to join international sanctions against North Korea, but there have been growing signs of dissatisfaction among Chinese intellectuals and possibly Chinese officials about the extent to which the North has shrugged off warnings and pushed ahead with tests in recent months of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles.

The United States Treasury imposed sanctions in March on the North Korean Foreign Trade Bank after accusing it of involvement in nuclear proliferation. Tom Donilon, the White House national security adviser, called at the time for China to stop conducting “business as usual” with North Korea.

Mr. Cai said that the move by the Bank of China appeared to be “predominantly symbolic,” while later adding, “But it could have practical consequences, because North Korea is already under such heavy international sanctions, and China is such an important economic channel for it.

“If China narrows the door to North Korea, then its economic operations or financial flows could be affected,” he said. “But primarily this appears to be a way of China showing its views about their behavior, so that North Korea is more likely to rethink its actions.”

Mr. Cai said Chinese policy toward North Korea appeared to be undergoing measured recalibration, rather than a fundamental shift. “There is some adjustment, but no major, fundament change,” he said. “It’s small adjustments.”

Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was not asked about the Bank of China’s decision at the ministry’s daily briefing on Tuesday and she did not address it.

Patrick Zuo contributed research from Beijing,  and Chris Buckley and Hilda Wang contributed reporting from Hong Kong.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/08/world/asia/china-cuts-ties-with-north-korean-bank.html?partner=rss&emc=rss