Sunday 16 January 2022
Goods train pulled into Sinuiju
Report: North Korea may be trading with China
In the recent past, North Korea has only drawn attention to itself with missile tests, while the population suffers from food shortages. The precarious economic situation is apparently driving Kim Jong Un to trade with China.
North Korea has reportedly sent a freight train across the Yalu River to China after a long break due to the corona pandemic. A freight train from the North Korean city of Sinuiju has arrived in the Chinese border city of Dandong after crossing the Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge, South Korean and Japanese media reported, citing multiple sources.
It was not previously known whether the train was loaded with goods or empty. The train will probably return to North Korea on Monday with goods for “emergency supplies”, the South Korean news agency Yonhap quoted an informant as saying. It is the first time in a year and a half that North Korea has formally reopened its border with China. The arrival of the train fueled speculation in South Korea that North Korea and China could resume trade across the country’s border. According to the Japanese agency Kyodo, however, it was still unclear whether trading would soon be able to resume in full.
Because of its nuclear weapons program, North Korea is subject to tough sanctions by the UN Security Council, which were also imposed with the consent of the veto power China. The consequences of the corona pandemic also hit the country hard. Fearing that the virus could be introduced, it closed its borders early on, which had a major impact on trade with China.
The Central Bank of South Korea estimates that, among other things, the import of consumer goods into the neighboring country has practically come to a standstill. The country also suffers from food shortages. However, the South Korean secret service reported at the end of October that the number of ships bringing essential goods from China to North Korea had increased again since last July. North Korea is also regularly accused of circumventing the sanctions by, among other things, transferring oil and coal from ship to ship.