China’s exports to North surge close to 2019 levels

Chinese exports to North Korea appear to be recovering to pre-pandemic levels.

A freight train departing from China’s Dandong headed for North Korea’s Sinuiju on Sept. 26, 2022. [YONHAP]

Chinese exports to North Korea appear to be recovering to pre-pandemic levels.

According to data from China’s General Administration of Customs analyzed by the JoongAng Ilbo, the amount of rice and nitrogen fertilizers exported to the North from January to March this year has already exceeded the total export volume of those items in 2022.

China exported 29.16 million tons of rice to the North in the first three months of 2023, much more than the 23.89 million tons of rice it sent to the regime in 2022.

In the same period, China exported 7.02 million tons of ammonium sulfate, a material used in nitrogen fertilizers, more than the 7 million tons that China sent last year.

The total amount of trade between the two neighboring countries also seems to be approaching the levels of 2019 before Covid-19 spread.

From January to March, China’s total export to the North was $438.42 million, about 96.4 percent of the $454.92 million tallied in the first quarter of 2019.

Compared to the first quarter of 2022, exports jumped by 154 percent.

China’s total imports from the North during the same period, according to the Chinese customs agency, was $47.43 million, roughly 86.9 percent of the $54.59 million measured from January to March 2019.

Compared to the first quarter of 2022, imports increased by 102 percent.

Data showed China normally sold grains and fertilizers to the North, while the North mainly exported wigs, silicon and tungsten.

China’s largest export item was rice and cereal products, which amounted to $34.02 million in the first three months of this year.

The second largest was fertilizer materials such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, which amounted to $25.58 million. The third largest was processed wig materials, with a value of $22.64 million in exports.

North Korea mainly sold wigs and eyelash products, amounting to $17.98 million. Those were followed by silicon iron with $7.64 million, tungsten with $5.85 million and electricity with $4.84 million.

While North Korea recorded a trade deficit of nearly $1.4 billion with China during the pandemic from 2020 to 2022, serious imbalances were still seen earlier this year.

In the first quarter of 2023, the deficit reached about $39 million, more than half of last year’s $75.965 million.

Trade between the two countries, which has only been conducted by freight trains between China’s Dandong and North Korea’s Sinuiju, could soon expand into freight trucks.

The Voice of America reported Wednesday that satellite photos from Planet Labs, a U.S. satellite data company, showed busy activity at Dandong’s customs marshaling yard since the end of April.

BY SHIN KYUNG-JIN [lee.sungeun@joongang.co.kr]