Three days before the Chinese New Year, China has released a document to ban exports of materials and goods that could be used for civilian and military uses to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).  

The list contains some of the materials and technologies required to create weapons of mass destruction, chemical weapons, as well as missiles.

Jointly released by the Ministry of Commerce (MoC), the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, the China Atomic Energy Authority and the General Administration of Customers, the list was published on the MoC website on Wednesday.

The document, effective on January 25, was a move showing China will further implement the UN Resolution 2321 adopted last November in response to the DPRK’s fifth and largest nuclear test in September.

Last year, just a day ahead of the Chinese New Year, the DPRK launched the so-called earth observation satellite on February 7, which was widely believed as a ballistic missile technology by the international community. The launch came within a month since the country carried out its first hydrogen bomb test. However, the two tests in the first two months of 2016 were just among a series of nuclear bombing and missile tests by the DPRK in 2016.

“A strike a blow to the DPRK’s military industry,” Jin Qiangyi, director of Asia Research Center at Yanbian University, described the list when interviewed by the Global Times. According to Jin, the isolated country mainly depends on imports for its military industry. He believed it was China's move to pull the DPRK back to the negotiation table over the nuclear issue.