China halts imports of key products from North Korea under UN curbs

China will halt import of coal, iron, iron ore and seafood from its ally North Korea from tomorrow, as it implements new UN sanctions amid US President Donald Trump's warnings to Pyongyang over its nuclear programme.

The Chinese announcement comes days after an increasingly aggressive rhetoric between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

"China will halt imports of coal, iron, iron ore and seafood from North Korea from Tuesday as part of new United Nations sanctions," the Ministry of Commerce said today.

The UN Security Council had approved tough sanctions against Pyongyang on August 6 in response to North Korea's two intercontinental ballistic missile tests last month.

China had pledged to fully enforce the sanctions after the US accused it of not doing enough to rein in its ally which heavily depends on Beijing for its economic survival.

Observers said the new sanctions could cost about USD 1 billion loss of revenue for China.

Kim had said that after the nuclear tests, North Korea could now strike at any part of the US.

Strongly reacting to this, Trump had said that US will retaliate with "fire and fury like the world has never seen" if North Korea continued to threaten the US or its allies.

Meanwhile, China appointed Assistant Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou as special envoy to Korean peninsula replacing veteran Wu Dawei, who turned 71.

The appointment came amid reports that Trump plans to order probe against China's Intellectual Property Right (IPR) violations to press Beijing to do more to rein its ally North Korea.

Kong is an ethnic Korean from the Chinese province of Heilongjiang. He dealt with Asian affairs at the foreign ministry.

However, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that Kong had taken Wu, but that there was no link between the appointment and the tense situation on the Korean peninsula.

She said there would be no change in China's policy towards the Korean peninsula as a result of the appointment.