Summary The closure would be the first openly acknowledged move by an institution in China.
BEIJING (AFP) - The state-owned Bank of China has shut the account of a North Korean bank accused by the United States of supporting the North s nuclear programme, Dow Jones Newswires said Tuesday.
"The Foreign Trade Bank of North Korea, the country s main foreign-exchange bank, has been told its account has been closed," Dow Jones reported, citing a statement from the Chinese financial institution.
The closure would be the first openly acknowledged move by an institution in China, the North s key backer, against North Korean interests in the current stand-off, which escalated in February with Pyongyang s third atomic test.
The Bank of China is one of the country s biggest state-owned banks and is subject to political directives from Chinese authorities.
Washington imposed sanctions on the North Korean organisation, Pyongyang s primary foreign-exchange bank, after the latest nuclear blast.
It has urged China, which is the North s largest trade partner and biggest food and energy supplier, to do more to contain its smaller neighbour.
When US Secretary of State John Kerry visited Beijing last month, the two countries vowed to work together to try to ease tensions on the Korean peninsula but gave no details.
Kerry said there would be "very focused continued high-level discussions about the ways to fill in any blanks" and said he wanted to ensure that the pledges were "not just rhetoric, but that it is real policy".
There have also been domestic calls for China to reduce its closeness to North Korea.
Beijing has supported separate United Nations sanctions on the North, which were also expanded after the February test.
But it has also said sanctions are not the "fundamental way" to resolve the crisis, and has tended to avoid antagonising Pyongyang for fear of provoking an over-reaction and destabilising the region.
Tensions in the Korean peninsula shot up in the weeks following the last nuclear test, with Pyongyang threatening nuclear war against South Korea and the US, while those two countries held joint military exercises.
But on Tuesday the North took a significant step back from a planned missile test, US officials said, even as Pyongyang and Seoul exchanged fresh threats of swift military retaliation to any provocation.
A US defence official said two North Korean missiles -- primed for imminent test-firing, had been moved from their launch site.
The step signalled a possible easing of tensions before a summit at the White House later Tuesday between the US and South Korean presidents intended to send Pyongyang a strong signal of unity.
US sanctions ban any American individual, business or organisation from conducting transactions with a number of named entities in an effort to cut them off from international trade.
Dow Jones said the Bank of China did not provide further details in its statement and declined additional comment. The bank could not be reached for comment by AFP.
