Taiwan announced Tuesday a plan to completely halt all trade activities with North Korea, amid the international society’s mounting efforts to bring about economic and diplomatic isolation to the North, according to a report.
 

The Taiwanese cabinet posted an official announcement on its website that it would comply with the UN Security Council sanctions by severing its trade ties with the reclusive regime, Japan’s Kyodo News reported Tuesday. Its cabinet spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung said the decision was made as a member of the international community, regardless of its status as a nonmember of the UN.

According to reports, Asia’s fifth-largest economy has already blocked imports of North Korean coal, copper ore and textiles, among others, in the past and placed a cap on exports of key trade items such as oil and refined petroleum products.

On top of its decision to cut off trade ties, Taiwan also publically declared the annulment of a nuclear waste agreement inked nearly two decades ago with Pyongyang. The controversial deal struck in 1997 is believed to have allowed the state-run Taiwan Power to ship nearly 60,000 barrels of nuclear waste to North Korea over a two-year period.

The firm’s spokesperson Lin Te-fu told a local media outlet on Tuesday that the agreement wasn’t implemented in the first place, as North Korea failed to respond to its request for key documents greenlighting its export. Lin also stressed there were no financial transactions between the two regarding the deal.

North Korea later filed a dispute resolution action in Taiwan’s Executive Yuan in 2004 for breach of contract, but it was dismissed as the duration of the convention had expired by then.

Kyodo News pointed out that among North Korea’s trading partners, Taiwan ranks 174th and the bilateral trade volume between the two is “miniscule.”

Taiwan imported North Korean goods worth $1.2 million from January to July this year, while exporting $36,575 in goods to the North over the same period.

China on Saturday decided to ban exports of condensate and liquefied natural gas to North Korea and limit textile imports from the North, in line with the fresh set of UNSC sanctions. But crude oil is not subjected to the ban.

Meanwhile, Seoul’s Ministry of Unification said Monday that gasoline prices in Pyongyang have trebled since the beginning of this year and is further expected to rise. Although the price may vary among the cities, the government is viewing this as an effect of the fresh UNSC sanctions imposed earlier this month, said a ministry official.

“The price of rice and foreign exchange rates are relatively stable for now,” he said. “But the North’s total exports is forecast to decrease by about 90 percent this year.”

By Jung Min-kyung (mkjung@heraldcorp.com)