China banned coal imports from the DPRK last year but continued trading under the livelihood exceptions allowed for by the Security Council. Now China has announced it will voluntarily suspend even these exceptions, and if it follows through will wipe out almost half of the DPRK’s already small foreign income. So why has China gone through with this now?

Coal was already banned: this is a suspension extending the ban to the livelihood exceptions

China banned all coal from the DPRK over six months ago in 2016 in order to comply with UN Security Council