TOKYO, Jan. 25 (UPI) -- China's oil shipment to North Korea remained flat in 2006 compared with a year earlier despite U.N.-backed sanctions, according to a Japanese news report.
The communist patron exported around 524,000 tons of oil to the energy-starved neighbor from January to December, up 0.2 percent from a year earlier, Kyodo news agency said Thursday, citing China's General Administration of Customs.
China's total oil exports in 2006 totaled some 6,337,216 tons, down 21.4 percent from the previous year, it said.
China, Pyongyang's main ally, suspended oil exports to the North in September in the wake of its missile test in July. But it increased shipments since October, compensating for the September cutoff.
The country has provided some 90 percent of North Korea's oil and more than one-third of its imports and food aid, according to officials.
