(März 2003) Diplomats said the oil pipeline from China‘s northeastern province of Liaoning to North Korea was shut for three days in early March, soon after Pyongyang test-fired a missile into waters between the peninsula and Japan. Any halt in supplies would be a severe blow to North Korea, where energy and food shortages have left the population on the brink of a humanitarian disaster.

China is its main source of fuel, exporting an estimated 1m tonnes of oil each year to Pyongyang.