This October, the US government for the first time imposed economic sanctions on a Chinese company for providing vehicles for transfer North Korean road-mobile missiles.

The Treasury Department’s little noticed October 13 announcement of sanctions on the Wuhan Sanjiang Import and Export Co. Ltd., focused on the company’s sale of equipment to Iran, however. It only mentions the launcher transfers in passing – a symptom of Washington’s aversion to calling out Beijing on its covert support for the regime in North Korea.

The Trump administration recently announced a new policy pressuring Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear and missile programs.