Who Trades with North Korea?

Posted by Daniel Workman Jul 15, 2006

Ready for their morning runs, trucks line up on either side of a narrow "friendship bridge" across the Yalu River between North Korea and China. Each day more than 200 trucks cross into Korea from China, delivering 70 percent of the North Korea's imports.

Chinese trucks transport electrical equipment, stainless steel goods, and new appliances into North Korea. In contrast, the North uses open-bed trucks to export scrap iron, crushed rock, sacks of mineral powder, and coal to China.

Another country that is committed to a stable North Korea is South Korea. That's because a collapse of North Korea could force an exodus of refugees and a potential security crisis. This might bring the America military to the borders of China and South Korea.

Kim Jong Il's diplomatic relations have also improved with Russia, which has considerable oil reserves. North Korea's leader has already visited twice Russia's Vladimir Putin who calls Jong Il "man I can deal with." Recently Moscow discussed a gas pipeline with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (the North's official name).

The North has even improved its relations with regional states like nearby Mongolia.

As one Russian diplomat who lives in the North's capital city of Pyongyang observed, "The amount of goods coming into the North doubled last year." With international trade growing at such a robust rate, the collapse of North Korea does not appear to be imminent. And certainly not with trade partners that include China, South Korea and Russia.