The economic sanctions targeting North Korea
may be starting to bite.
New data shows...
Pyongyang is selling less to its biggest trade
partner, China.
Our Cha Sang-mi has more on the gloom that
awaits unless the regime change its ways.
U.S. news website Business Insider on Wednesday
reported that North Korea has fallen into
a one-point-seven billion U.S. dollar trade
deficit with China, its biggest and most important
trade partner.
NK News, a U.S.-based website that provides
news and analysis about North Korea, also
pointed out at contrasting trade figures.
While North Korea spent over three-billion
dollars on Chinese imports in 2017,... it
only exported one-point-six billion dollars
in goods.
The North's exports last year represent a
dive from 2013 when it exported nearly three-billion
dollars in goods to China.
The slump comes after the UN imposed and pushed
for "maximum pressure" on Pyongyang a year
ago by restricting its trade, especially on
rare earth minerals.
Hinting at some alternative source of funding,
questions rise over how Pyongyang manages
to operate in the face of such trade deficit.
According to experts, the culprit could be
the dollarization of Pyongyang's economy,
where foreign currencies such as the U.S.
dollar and the Japanese yen are preferred
over its own banknotes.
"Actually North Korea's private marketplace
has a lot of foreign currencies.
North Korean individuals also have some savings.
So the government is using this money to continue
the imports.
But as soon as the cash dries out, imports
will stop dramatically."
The expert also said that North Korea has
been searching for profits in cyber- or crypto
market-hacking, but that activity, even when
paired with other illegal acts, is not enough
to sustain the regime's economy.
As such, many experts are saying that North
Korea's trade won't be blooming anytime soon
under the ongoing sanctions which were imposed
following its sixth nuclear test last September.
Cha Sang-mi, Arirang News.
