India bars trade of defence, other goods with North Korea

27 Mar 2017

In a recent move, India has prohibited the exports and imports on several products, including defence related goods, aviation fuel and coal, relating to North Korea.

A notification released by the government said, “Direct or indirect export and import of certain items whether or not originating in Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), to/from DPRK is prohibited.” The items that were prohibited include battle tanks, combat vehicles, combat aircraft, attack helicopters, missiles and light weapons. Other goods banned for exports include luxury goods and aviation fuel.

Indian government has also prohibited imports of certain minerals including as coal, iron, iron ore, gold, titanium, rare earth metals, copper, nickle, silver and zinc. The official letter from the concerned department said, “This notification seeks to update the Foreign Trade Policy 2015-20 to account for current UN Security Council Resolutions concerning DPRK… of November 20, 2016.”

The move came soon the news of US President Donald Trump’s administration considering sweeping sanctions aimed at cutting North Korea off from the global financial system came out. As per US officials, a broad review of measures to counter Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile threat.

The US sanctions is considered to be a part of a multi-pronged approach of increased economic and diplomatic pressure on Chinese banks and firms that do maximum business with North Korea. The move also beefed-up defences by the United States and its South Korean and Japanese allies, Reuters quoted an administration official familiar with the deliberations. While the long-standing option of military strikes against North Korea is still taken into consideration, the new administration is giving priority for now to less-risky options.

Source – www.financialexpress.com