North Korean trade with biggest partner China dives 48 per cent amid sanctions
- Reliance on communist neighbour takes overall foreign trade volume below US$3 billion for first time since Kim Jong-un took power, according to report
- Observers say slow economic growth could weaken regime in the long run, but Beijing is expected to keep UN measures in place for now
North Korea’s trade with China has again fallen sharply, taking the country’s overall foreign trade volume below US$3 billion for the first time since Kim Jong-un took power in 2011.
Trade with China totalled US$2.7 billion in 2018, down 48.2 per cent from a year earlier, according to a report from the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency on Friday.
But according to the report, “North Korea’s Foreign Trade Trend in 2018”, the country’s trade reliance on its communist neighbour reached a record high last year.
That heavy reliance on China meant North Korea’s overall foreign trade, excluding inter-Korean trade, also shrank, for a second consecutive year. It was down by 48.8 per cent from 2017 to US$2.84 billion.
Russia, the country’s second biggest trading partner, accounts for just 1.2 per cent of North Korea’s total trade volume.