A private think tank in Seoul claims that North Korea’s exports of underground resources to China must be blocked in order to boost the effectiveness of sanctions on the North.
 
In a report Monday, the Korea Economic Research Institute said that the North’s exports of underground resources to China amounted to a record one-point-eight billion dollars in 2013 but slipped to one-and-a-half billion dollars in 2014. The report also cited that the percentage of underground resources out of North Korea's total exports to China fell from some 63 percent to 54 percent during that same period.
 
Choi Soo-young, a visiting scholar at the institute, said that the drop in underground resource exports to China was the key reason the North’s overall exports fell. Choi said that if the North’s exports of underground resources to China continue to slip, the North will face a blow in efforts to secure foreign currency.
 
Choi went on to say that if such exports are blocked, the international community’s economic sanctions against the North would become more effective, stressing the need for China’s participation in punishing the North.