BEIJING: China exported US$4.25 million worth of prohibited electronics products to North Korea last year, a news report said Thursday, a move that could reinforce widespread concerns that China is not enforcing U.N. sanctions on North Korea. North Korea has been under U.N. sanctions for missile and nuclear tests in recent years. But the North has skirted sanctions by taking advantage of loopholes in trade with China. Three main products were routers, which are networking devices that forward data packets between computers; servers; and microprocessors, according to the Voice of America report.
In January, China’s exports of routers and servers continued to rise. Early this month, the U.S. fined ZTE of China $1.19 billion for breaking sanctions and selling electronics to the nuclear-armed North. ZTE, China’s second-largest maker of telecom equipment, reportedly sold prohibited American-made electronics to help build Iran’s telecom networks and also made nearly 300 shipments of the three products to the North.
