Who Is North Korea Trading With?

North Korea might be the hermit kingdom, but data from the UN Comtrade database reveals that goods worth a combined $1 billion were still traded in and out of the reclusive country in 2022. This is much less than five years ago, however, posing serious challenges for North Korea and its citizens, which have been exposed to hunger, as recent reports have found.

According to reports from Reuters, imports from China to North Korea have surged in April after also increasing in 2022 due to the end of a Covid-induced trade freeze. However, both imports and exports to the country have fallen sharply over the years - a trend that started even before the pandemic. Exports were down from US$2.8 billion in 2015 to only US$1.7 billion in 2017 and even further to just $192 million in 2022, with imports also falling significantly from US$3.5 billion worth of goods in 2015 to only $903 million in 2022.

International pressure to stick to the sanctions against the country before the pandemic had isolated North Korea further, with China consolidating its role as the country's only real trade partner. In 2015, Chinese imports made up was 85 percent of all North Korean imports - the share now stands at 99 percent as the pandemic era has sealed the country off against the world more than ever before.

China is also the biggest player in North Korean exports with a share of almost 70 percent in them. A handful of European countries are also buying North Korean, however. Poland imported iron, steel and plastic products as well as pharmaceutical products, electrical and other machinery worth almost $10 million last year. Half of the Netherlands' imports worth around $8 million in total consisted of nickel and nickel products, with some substantial amounts of polyethylene and airplane parts also imported.

Both European countries have maintained diplomatic relations in some form with North Korea and their trade with the country can be classified as symbolic. However, it is a different type of import that has been labeled as problematic in Europe. The Dutch University of Leiden in 2019 identified clothing made in North Korea under exploitative labor conditions that had made its way to the Netherlands and other Western countries labeled as of Chinese origin. While Mozambique's 2022 imports of North Korean transformers and other machinery were likely above board, the country was investigated in 2017 for its arms deals with the country that violated UN sanctions. At least seven countries in Africa were part of the investigation. Regular economic ties with North Korea, which are not the subject of sanctions, were increasing in African countries at the same time, according to the Voice of America.