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US President Donald Trump raises his fist in the air following a speech on tax reform legislation at the St. Charles Convention Center in Missouri on Nov. 29. (AFP/Yonhap News)

US President Donald Trump requested a halt to supplies of crude and refined oil to North Korea in a Nov. 29 telephone conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley announced. A tense tug-of-war is predicted between the two sides over a possible oil supply halt, which may be viewed as the last remaining card to pressure Pyongyang with almost all other effective means of sanctions exhausted.

“President Trump called Chinese President Xi this morning and told him we have come to the point that China must cut off its oil from North Korea,” Haley announced in an emergency UN Security Council meeting that afternoon at the UN headquarters in New York.

“That [halting oil supplies] will be a pivotal step in the world efforts to stop this international pariah [North Korea],” she continued.

“China can do this on its own, or we can take the oil situation into our own hands,” she added.

Haley went on to say that oil was a key driver of nuclear weapons production, adding that 30% of oil supplies to the North had been blocked by UNSC sanctions.

“But the crude oil remains,” she said. In response to North Korea’s sixth nuclear test last September, the UNSC adopted Resolution 2375, which reduced refined oil exports including gasoline and diesel by roughly half and froze crude oil supplies at their current level.

In a press release the same morning on the telephone conversation with Xi, the White House said Trump had “emphasized the need for China to use all available levers to convince North Korea to end its provocations and return to the path of denuclearization.” A halt to oil supplies could be seen as central to the currently “available levers.”

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In response to Haley’s calls for an oil supply halt at the emergency UNSC meeting, Chinese Deputy Permanent Representative Ambassador for the UN Wu Haitao indicated Beijing’s opposition to a full-scale halt.

“It is China's consistent view that the Security Council sanctions against the DPRK should not negatively impact relevant humanitarian assistance activities,” Wu said. But sources indicated China is internally weighing additional reductions or a even “temporary halt” on all oil supplies if the US demands intensify.

“The UN Security Council has adopted a series of resolutions regarding the DPRK, which we believe shall be observed and implemented comprehensively and thoroughly,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said when asked about the crude oil supply issue during a regular briefing on Nov. 30.

Geng reiterated Beijing’s previous position, stressing that it would “continue to approach the relevant issue in ways that are conducive to realizing the denuclearization of the Peninsula, maintaining peace and stability on the Peninsula, and resolving the relevant issue through dialogue and consultation.”

By Yi Yong-in, Washington correspondent

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