China is making progress in enforcing sanctions imposed on North Korea, a U.S. State Department official said on Thursday, and urged skeptical members of Congress not to rush to enact new ones before giving Beijing’s efforts a chance to take effect.
“We are working closely with China to execute this strategy and are clear-eyed in viewing the progress - growing, if uneven - that China has made on this front,” State Department Assistant Secretary Susan Thornton told a Senate hearing just before leaving for China with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
“We do see Chinese policy shifting,” she said, as members of the Senate Banking Committee advocated for tougher action to clamp down on Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile development.
China’s Commerce Ministry Thursday said North Korean firms in China and joint ventures in China and overseas would be shut within 120 days of the latest U.N. sanctions passed on Sept. 12.
