Cargo shipments between China, DPRK resume

Beijing confirmed Monday it has resumed railway cargo shipments with Pyongyang to facilitate bilateral normal trade interactions.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian made the announcement at a daily news briefing, adding the work will be conducted on the basis of ensuring pandemic prevention and control.

It is reported a cargo freight shipment from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea arrived at the Chinese border city of Dandong on Sunday for the first time since anti-coronavirus border lockdowns.

Zhao said railway shipments between the two countries had been suspended for some time due to the pandemic.

Now freight trains carrying goods between Dandong and Sinuiju in DPRK have resumed operations after bilateral friendly consultations, he added.

In another development, Zhao rebuked the United Kingdom for banning Huawei from its domestic 5G market, saying the move "benefits no one and harms itself."

According to Kishore Mahbubani, a former Singaporean diplomat, a business executive from the UK said his country had planted its intelligence officer in Huawei and "scrubbed everything", and confirmed "Huawei was not a threat to us".

However, the UK "capitulated" due to pressure from the United States several months later and blocked Huawei. The UK official has not made any comment on that.

"I have noted relevant reports and I also want to hear the explanation from the UK," Zhao said.

Zhao said he also noted recent comments by British media outlets that UK barring Huawei from 5G would greatly delay its 5G construction.

Oliver Dowden, the UK Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport also said the supply ban on Huawei would mean a delay to 5G rollout of "two to three years".

A global report by Oxford Economics in 2019 sheds light on the potential costs of restricting competition in the provision of 5G network equipment, saying restricting a key supplier of 5G infrastructure from helping to build the UK's network would increase that country's 5G investment costs by between 8 and 29 percent over the next decade.

"Some individuals and forces in the UK follow a certain country out of political self-interests to overstretch the concept of national security and hobble some Chinese enterprises," Zhao said, adding it is the people of the UK who will miss out on the benefits of 5G technology.