North Korea: Trends in foreign trade in 2018: A sharp decline of 48.8% from the previous year
Seoul
July 25, 2019
“Trends of Foreign Trade in North Korea in 2018”: (See Table 1)
On July 19th, we announced the “Trends of Foreign Trade in North Korea in 2018”.
The amount of trade in North Korea in 2018 (excluding trade with Korea) is estimated at $ 2.84 billion, down 48.8% from the previous year.
Exports dropped sharply by 86.3% and imports decreased by 31.2%.
Korea Trade and Investment Promotion Corporation (KOTRA):
North Korea’s total trade amounted to $ 5.5 billion to $ 7.6 billion since the establishment of the Kim Jong-un regime.
But for 2018, for the first time it is below $ 3 billion.
Sanctions on North Korea (by the UN Security Council) seem to have had a strong impact.
Amount of trade with China: (See Table 2)
It decreased 48.2% to $ 2,722.90 million.
The share of total trade is 95.8%, and the degree of dependence on China remains high.
Russia, India, Pakistan, and Switzerland are in order, but the share of the second Russia remains at 1.2%.
Japan has no trade experience since 2009 due to the Japanese government’s own sanctions.
By item: Main export products: (See Table 3)
Exports of mineral fuels and textiles, steel, machinery and electrical equipment have fallen sharply.
Optical and precision instruments (watches and parts) and prepared feather and fluff products are on the rise.
By item: Main imported products
Machinery and electrical equipment (such as boilers) have dropped sharply.
On the other hand, fertilizer is increasing rapidly.
The largest import item is mineral fuel (crude oil, refined oil).
The figures include estimated crude oil imports from China ($ 310 million, about 500,000 tons).
-JETRO
https://www.jetro.go.jp/biznews/2019/07/6ba51f44ee13ec7a.html