Some have suspected that the building may be for commercial purposes, which would violate UN resolutions that China is party to.
US-based North Korean news and analysis site NK News reported that the the North Korean embassy in Beijing "is reportedly building new lodging facilities for North Koreans visiting China in its compound. It's still unclear whether it will be for commercial use or not."
NK News, whose reporting was based on an anonymous source, said that they thought the new building "is for North Koreans temporarily staying in Beijing like high-level officials and diplomatic delegates."
However, the building could also be a commercial facility for foreigners wanting to get a taste of North Korean culture. Several DPRK embassies in Europe, including the ones in Bulgaria, Germany, Poland and Romania, have such a feature.
Numerous North Korean-owned businesses are open around the Beijing embassy, making up a "Little Pyongyang" of food and culture shops.
However, in November 2016 the UN adopted Resolution 2321, which bans any commercial activities in North Korean embassies. This was done to punish Pyongyang for a spate of nuclear tests in September of that year – a spate that has become a habit and shows no signs of stopping 10 months later.
For instance, the North Korean embassy in Warsaw rents out a building on the embassy grounds to a Polish sound production studio. This is in violation of the UN Resolution, but Europe has been sluggish to punish companies whose only crime was renting land owned by Kim Jong-un.
"It is very easy to talk about more sanctions, but the reality is that when you try to translate that into action on the ground, each country has its own priorities," said Brian Bridges, a Malaysia-based adjunct professor of Asian politics at Hong Kong's Lingnan University, to Bloomberg. "If you are thousands of miles away, and North Korea isn't a direct threat, then it's going to be a fairly low priority."
There's also the concern that states like Poland are some of the few that still have official relations with the "Hermit Kingdom". "If there is an international sanctions regime, we as European states have to follow that but we also need to balance the risk of countermeasures in Pyongyang," added Niklas Swanstrom, the director of the Stockholm-based Institute for Security and Development Policy, also to Bloomberg. "It is probably important to keep those diplomatic links because so few states have them."
This has become a minor cause of friction between nations like Poland and the United States, which is spearheading anti-Pyongyang activities. "Any country that hosts North Korean guest workers, provides any economic or military benefits, or fails to fully implement UN Security Council resolutions is aiding and abetting a dangerous regime," said US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on July 4.
The United States under President Donald Trump has frequently called on China to exert diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea to put a stop to their missile tests. The success of these measures has been limited, and Chinese commitment to cooperating with them has come under question.
North Korea announced on Wednesday that it plans to open a travel agency in Hunchun City, with Chinese managers and Korean tour guides.
