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Trade with North Korea

What sanctions?

On the border between China and North Korea it is business as usual
Mar 12th 2016 | DANDONG | From the print edition

sanction: official permission or approval. Sanction has two nearly opposite meanings: to sanction can be to approve of something, but it can also mean to punish, or speak harshly to.
例句: The U.S. rapidly removed years of painstakingly constructed oil, trade, and economic sanctions on Iran in return for stringent new constraints on its nuclear program. (Seattle Times Dec 22, 2016)
例句: Apparently, the aide had acted without White House sanction.

ONLY a few hundred metres separate the small but lively Chinese city of Dandong from Sinuiju, its drab North Korean counterpart on the opposite bank of the Yalu River. There are two iron-truss bridges in the city centre, built by Japanese who were then occupying the area: one in 1911 and the other in 1943. Both were badly damaged by American bombers during the Korean war of the 1950s. A surviving stretch of the older one, renamed “Broken Bridge”, is now a tourist attraction (on the right of the picture). The newer one (on the left) still carries road and rail traffic across the river, a vital conduit for North Korea’s trade with China.
介绍丹东和朝鲜贸易往来的重要途径——铁桥。

drab: lacking in liveliness or charm or surprise.
例句: Ms. Munro’s northern world is a place of drab, wintry tones and buttoned-up emotions, a far cry from Mr. Almodóvar’s empire of passions. (New York Times Dec 20, 2016)
conduit: a passage (a pipe or tunnel) through which water or electric wires can pass. The computers were connected through a system of conduits.
例句: De Moor says these observations could indicate that the water eventually boiled off, or that new volcanic conduits formed, bypassing the water reservoirs. (Science Magazine Nov 21, 2016)

In theory, that may now be disrupted by sweeping sanctions imposed by the UN, with China’s backing, on March 2nd. They ban trade in luxury items and call for (potentially time-consuming and costly) inspections of cargo going into, and coming out of, North Korea. China is by far the biggest trading partner of the North; if these sanctions are being applied rigorously, it should be evident in Dandong, which handles an estimated 70% of the trade between the two countries.
朝鲜应该遭受制裁的背景。

sweeping: taking in or moving over (or as if over) a wide area; often used in combination. a sweeping glance, a wide- sweeping view of the river
例句: Technology is sweeping through cars, and cars are sweeping through the tech industry. (New York Times Dec 14, 2016)
inspection: a formal or official examination. Every year, your car must get an inspection by an authorized mechanic who verifies that it is not a hazard on the road or harmful to the environment.
例句: It would effectively kill New Start, the 2011 treaty between the United States and Russia that capped nuclear deployments and mandated regular inspections. (New York Times Dec 22, 2016)

It is not, yet. The first reported case of sanctions being enforced involved the impounding of a North Korean cargo ship at a commercial port in the Philippines a few hours after the UN voted to impose fresh sanctions in response to tests by North Korea earlier this year of a nuclear device and a long-range ballistic missile (dressed up as a rocket carrying a satellite into space). But there has been no report of trade between North Korea and China being affected.
介绍朝鲜遭受的制裁但和中国的贸易没有受到影响。

impound: take temporary possession of as a security, by legal authority. The customs agents impounded the illegal shipment.
例句: With the shooter’s gun impounded as evidence, local gun shop owner Mark Williams says he reached out to offer the man a replacement firearm. (Seattle Times Nov 17, 2016)
ballistic: relating to or characteristic of the motion of objects moving under their own momentum and the force of gravity.
例句: US ballistic missile submarines, bombers, and land-based missiles – the nuclear triad – are expected to reach the end of their useful lives over the next decade. (The Guardian Dec 22, 2016)

On March 9th your correspondent saw a sporadic flow of lorries travelling in both directions across the bridge. Locals said the volume looked normal. A foreign observer familiar with the area says it may be that the details of the new enforcement regime “have not yet trickled down to the person wearing the hat at the border”. Traders in the city say they have yet to feel the impact of sanctions. At a riverfront shop selling North Korean alcohol, cigarettes and ginseng, the owner shows no concern. He says the goods he sells will not be affected (he is right that they are not banned, unlike watches, snowmobiles and jet-skis).
用实际观察证明中朝贸易照旧进行。

sporadic: recurring in scattered and irregular or unpredictable instances. a city subjected to sporadic bombing raids.
例句: Peace negotiations between the government and Kurdish militants collapsed in 2015, triggering nearly a year and a half of sporadic violence. (Time Dec 11, 2016)
trickled down: To move or proceed slowly or bit by bit；
例句: If they do, the positive effects will eventually trickle down to local enterprises, and create an industry based on local manufacturing capabilities.

It would certainly be a bother for traders if Chinese customs officials were to inspect every shipment for items prohibited by the UN, including anything that could be used to help the country’s nuclear and missile programmes. But it is far from clear that that is what China intends. The latest UN sanctions allow for less rigorous inspections in the case of goods needed for humanitarian purposes. China could argue that much of its trade with North Korea falls in that category: it is the main supplier of food and oil. Since the latest sanctions were imposed, Chinese officials have continued to sound lukewarm about them. China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, said this week that “blind faith” in sanctions was not a “responsible” approach.
中国政府对于制裁的冷淡态度。

lukewarm: feeling or showing little interest or enthusiasm. gave only lukewarm support to the candidate.
例句: Worse yet was the new administration’s decidedly lukewarm attitude toward the Paris Accord on climate change. (Salon Dec 7, 2016)
far from: 远非；
例句: The employers and the trade union leaders are still poles apart, and are far from reaching an agreement or compromise.
blind faith in: 盲目相信；
例句: The worst course in the face of uncertainty is blind faith in conventional wisdom and past patterns.

South Korean press reports have said, however, that China had already begun restricting some North Korean transactions at Chinese banks and barring North Korean vessels at Chinese ports by late February, before the latest sanctions. China’s agreement to the tougher regime is certainly a sign of its frustration with its dangerously capricious neighbour, whose leader, Kim Jong Un, said this week that North Korea had developed miniaturised nuclear warheads that could be mounted on ballistic missiles. He even threatened a nuclear attack in response to large-scale South Korean and American military exercises now under way. Some observers are sceptical that the North has acquired such technology. Most discount its bellicose bombast.
中国之前对于朝鲜的制裁及其原因。

capricious: changeable, determined by chance or impulse or whim rather than by necessity or reason. Capricious is an adjective to describe a person or thing that's impulsive and unpredictable, like a bride who suddenly leaves her groom standing at the wedding altar.
例句: Olive branches were extended, but professional lives continued to be ruined while lukewarm op-eds asked for us to come together so we could start “healing”. (The Guardian Dec 1, 2016)
mount on: 增加到；
例句: Pressure to default could mount on other European countries, starting with Portugal and Spain but maybe spreading further.
sceptical: tending to disagree with what other people tell you
例句: Environmental groups are sceptical of the government's claims.
discount: bar from attention or consideration.
例句: She does not think communication style alone is likely to account for differences in clinical outcomes, but she does not think it should be discounted. (Washington Post Dec 19, 2016)
bellicose: having or showing a ready disposition to fight.
例句: It isn’t clear exactly what Trump, despite his bellicose rhetoric, would change about the president’s approach to counterterrorism and the war against the Islamic State. (Washington Post Dec 5, 2016)
bombast: pompous or pretentious talk or writing.
例句: In a wide-ranging condemnation of Trump in March, Romney said the businessman’s bombast was “alarming the allies and fueling the enmity of our enemies.” (Seattle Times Nov 27, 2016)

If he wants to curry favour with China, Mr Kim could try** holding up** his end of a deal for building a new bridge in Dandong. Gleaming but still idle, it was built by China at a cost of more than $325m. China has publicly blamed North Korean foot-dragging: in North Korea, the bridge ends in an empty field, connected to nothing.
朝鲜未遵守承诺，和中国一起完成修建新的大桥。中朝关系将通向何方还是个未知数。

curry favour with: 讨好；
例句: The Japan cases have involved largely lower-level employees, often salespeople, who appear to have used the inside data to curry favor with top clients, rather than to directly enrich themselves or their firms.
hold up: to support something and prevent it from falling down
例句: Children's wear is one area that is holding up well in the recession.
Gleaming: Teeth in toothpaste commercials are gleaming. They sparkle when the light hits. When you see this word, think of a bright reflected ray of light, on teeth, on water, or in someone's smiling eyes.
例句: I expected something modest, but this airport was massively expanded for the Shanghai Expo in 2010 and is still gleaming. (Seattle Times Dec 21, 2016)
idle: not in active use. the machinery sat idle during the strike.
e.g. She was in the process of divorcing singer-songwriter Ryan Adams after six years of marriage and felt like her career was stuck in idle. (Los Angeles Times Dec 5, 2016)
foot-dragging: 拖后腿；
例句: Given the sentiment in the rest of Europe-already fed up with Greece's chronic foot-dragging and missed targets-this won't be an easy task.

From the print edition: China