North Korean sand, a U.N.-banned item, will be shipped to China, in what is seen as Beijing's possible defiance of the sanctions on Pyongyang amid a Washington-Beijing trade row, according to sources familiar with the North. / Yonhap

By Yi Whan-woo

China appears to be loosening the noose on North Korea, casting a shadow over the nuclear sanctions on the North amid the ongoing Washington-Beijing trade dispute, according to sources familiar with Pyongyang.

They said Russia also appears to be going easy on the North in what is interpreted as a plot to maintain leverage on Pyongyang after their leaders' April meeting in Vladivostok.

"A North Korean trading company signed a contract with a Chinese trading company to export 1 million cubic meters of North Korean sand," a source directly involved with the matter told The Korea Times.