North Korea's Trade Dependence on China Reaches Record High of 95.2% Last Year

2019 North Korea Trade Up 11% Year-on-Year, Trading Partners Plummet from 115 to 62 Countries

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] Last year, North Korea's dependence on trade with China reached an all-time high.

According to the "Top 10 Countries and Top 10 Items in North Korea's Trade in 2019" released by the Korea International Trade Association on the 6th, North Korea's trade volume in 2019 was $2.945 billion, an 11% increase from the previous year, but the number of trading partner countries decreased by 46%, from 115 countries in 2018 to 62 countries.

North Korea's trade dependence on China, which was only 17.3% in 2001, reached a record high of 95.2% last year amid ongoing sanctions against North Korea. The trade volume between North Korea and China also increased by 15.3% from the previous year to $2.80437 billion. Following China were Russia (1.6%), Brazil (0.7%), India (0.4%), and Costa Rica (0.3%). Except for India and Saudi Arabia, the trade volume with all the top 10 trading partners increased compared to the previous year.

In 2019, North Korea's major export items were clocks (18.8%), ferrosilicon (11.3%), wigs (11.2%), laboratory apparatus models (6.3%), and tungsten (4.8%). Major imports were soybean oil (4.5%), textiles (3.5%), rice (2.9%), flour (2.9%), and clock parts (2.6%).

The report analyzed, "The major export and import items last year and the year before were almost the same, which is due to the export-import structure being fixed around non-sanctioned items because of the sanctions against North Korea."

The report continued, "Around 2017, when sanctions against North Korea were strengthened, the major export and import items were completely reorganized. The previous top five exports?coal, iron ore, textiles, knitted goods, and seafood?and the top five imports?fuel, electronics, machinery, vehicles, and steel?have all dropped to nearly 0% in export and import shares, except for some allowed fuel imports."

An official from the Trade Association said, "As sanctions against North Korea continue, the number of trading partners has sharply decreased and the scope of foreign trade has narrowed, so North Korea is increasing trade with China to offset this. Although North Korea's foreign trade is expected to shrink significantly this year due to COVID-19, once the epidemic subsides and trade with China resumes, foreign trade is expected to rebound sharply, and dependence on trade with China could again break the all-time record."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.