In compliance to UN security council’s sanction on North Korea and heeding to US President Donald Trump’s call for a more strict approach to the communist country’s menace, China on Thursday has ordered the closure of North Korean-owned businesses within its territory, cutting foreign revenue for the isolated North camp of the Korean Peninsula.

China’s move is expected to fire a limiting arrow into the nuclear weapons development of the regime as it is North Korea’s main trading partner. China has been a long North Korea’s diplomatic protector which had overtime resorted to dialogue with NK, but has gone along with the latest penalties out of growing frustration with leader Kim Jong Un’s government.

According to the Ministry of Commerce, North Korean businesses and ventures with Chinese partners must close within 120 days of the U.N. Security Council’s Sept. 11 approval of the latest sanctions.

Intensity of sanctions on North Korea increased following the regime’s sixth and most powerful nuclear test weeks ago, forcing the UN Security Council to vote unanimously to expand sanctions on Pyongyang, making it the ninth UN sanction over North Korea’s ballistic missile and nuclear programs since 2006.

Last week, China’s central bank told the country’s lenders to strictly implement UN sanctions against North Korea. They were ordered to stop providing financial services to new North Korean customers and to wind down loans with existing customers

However, China’s foreign ministry on Thursday equally appealed for dialogue to douse tensions arising from increasingly acrimonious dispute between U.S. President Donald Trump’s government and North Korea.

“The Korean Peninsula nuclear issue is related to regional peace and stability,” ministry spokesman. Breaking the deadlock requires all relevant parties to show their sincerity”, foreign minister Lu Kang said.

China is one of five permanent Security Council members with veto power, it supports the latest sanctions but doesn’t want to push North Korea too hard for fear Kim’s government might collapse.

Adegbite Adedotun