China-N.Korea customs post to close on 10

Beijing, Oct 9: The main customs posts on North Korea's border with China will shut to most traffic tomorrow restricting one of the isolated North's key portals to the outside world one day after Pyongyang carried out a nuclear test.

Officials and businessmen in Dandong, a bustling Chinese border city that looks across the Yalu River to North Korea, told Reuters that traffic across a bridge between the two countries would halt tomorrow except for special official cars.

It was unclear whether the move was prompted by Pyongyang's nuclear test today and the strikingly sharp condemnation it drew from China, its longtime partner and aid-provider.

A customs official and a Chinese businessman with close links to North Korea both said Pyongyang had requested the closure.

''They requested the closure so we reacted correspondingly,'' an official from the Dandong customs office told Reuters. She said tomorrow was a holiday marking the anniversary of the founding of North Korea's ruling communist Workers' Party.

But the official said she had received the notice only today and was unsure whether customs would reopen on Wednesday.

Two Chinese businessmen who trade with North Korea said the announcement was unusually sudden. ''We only learned about this just now,'' said one of them, Shan Jie. ''It's unclear what's behind it or what it means.'' The other businessman said that the closure would mean that customs officers would not process shipments, and truck transport would be blocked. He asked not to be named.

While some analysts had said China's increased trade with North Korea could buttress cooperation, recent Chinese figures show growth in China's exports to its Communist neighbour has slowed while imports from the North shrank 13.8 per cent in the first eight months of 2006 compared to a year ago.

At Dandong, which handles the bulk of trade between the two countries, Chinese exports to all countries fell 22.2 per cent in the first eight months, while imports into Dandong fell 32.9 percent, according to Chinese customs statistics.

Overall trade between the two countries grew 2.3 percent to $1.07 billion in the first eight months. Trade at Dandong, including with countries other than North Korea, was worth $835 million.

An official at the Dandong railway station said passenger and cargo trains to and from North Korea would operate normally tomorrow.

In the past, China has temporarily cut oil shipments to the North, citing maintenance work.

Reuters