Is China 'Fed-Up' With North Korea?

Liu Yunshan (right), a senior Communist party official, poses for the cameras with North Korean envoy Choe Ryong-hae on Thursday. Photograph: China Daily/Reuters

China Closes Pyongyang Bank Account -- Andray Abrahamian, The Diplomat

What’s been going on between China and the DPRK? We’ve been hearing rumors that North Korea has been rudely rejecting high-level Chinese delegations, with China returning the favor. But if there has been some kind of tit-for-tat, it seems to be over now: Choe Ryong Hae has visited Beijing, probably in no small part responding to the Bank of China's dramatic action from earlier this month.

The closure of the Foreign Trade Bank's account at Bank of China two weeks ago was significant and disruptive, but was even more important in terms of perception and symbolism. The FTB is North Korea's most important bank: it is (ostensibly) the clearinghouse for all foreign transactions and any bank accounts held in foreign currency. FTB customers would experience some temporary disruption of cash flow and there is no doubt debate going on in Pyongyang about whether to endow some other institution with the influence the FTB held.

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Update: China bluntly tells North Korea to resume negotiating -- The Examiner

My Comment: I have the benefit of knowing many Chinese nationals from the mainland .... starting with my first trip to the country in the mid-1980s. On my first trip I learned very quickly that China's support for North Korea was unquestioned, and no one was interested in doing business with my South Korea business contacts. Today .... they all want to do business with South Korea .... and North Korea is just an embarrassment. With time .... North Korea's importance to China will diminish even more .... and North Korea knows that.