BEIJING — China’s Commerce Ministry said Saturday that it will suspend all imports of coal from North Korea until the end of the year, a surprise move that will cut off a major financial lifeline for Pyongyang and significantly enhance the effectiveness of UN sanctions.
Coal is North Korea’s largest export item, and also China’s greatest point of leverage over the regime.
The ministry said the ban would come into force Sunday and be effective until Dec. 31.
China said the move was designed to implement last November’s United Nations Security Council resolution that tightened sanctions against the regime in the wake of its last nuclear test.
But experts said the move also reflected Beijing’s deep frustration with North Korea over its recent missile test and the apparent assassination of Kim Jong Un’s half brother in Malaysia.
Kim Jong Nam had been hosted and protected by China for many years, and his murder, if proved to be conducted on Pyongyang’s orders, would be seen as a direct affront to Beijing, experts said.
China has also come under significant international pressure to do more to rein in North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, while President Xi Jinping is believed to have become increasingly irritated by Kim’s behavior.
North Korea is China’s fourth-biggest supplier of coal. Although China announced last April that it would ban North Korean coal imports to comply with United Nations sanctions, it made exceptions for deliveries intended for the ‘‘people’s well-being’’ and not connected to the North’s missile programs.
The assassination of the North Korean leader’s estranged half-brother is strengthening bipartisan calls for the United States to relist North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism, a designation lifted nine years ago.
Doing so would increase the country’s isolation, while potentially complicating any future diplomacy to halt its nuclear and missile programs.
The United States kept North Korea on its terrorism blacklist for two decades after the 1987 bombing of a South Korean airliner killed 115 people.
But President George W. Bush lifted the designation in 2008 to smooth the way for aid-for-disarmament negotiations. The concession proved of little value as the talks collapsed soon after and have yet to resume.
Currently, Washington considers only Iran, Sudan, and Syria as terrorism sponsors.
To reimpose the designation on North Korea, the secretary of state would have to determine that it has ‘‘repeatedly’’ provided support for acts of international terrorism.
Last June, the department said North Korea ‘‘is not known to have sponsored any terrorist acts’’ since the plane attack 30 years ago.
House lawmakers are pushing for a fresh review of the evidence. The death of Kim’s exiled elder brother could make the case more persuasive.
