LONDON: Donald Trump has said the US is considering stopping all trade with countries that do business with North Korea.
But which countries trade with the most secretive and sanctioned country on earth?
In 2015, North Korea imported goods and services worth a total of $3.47bn and exports were worth $2.83bn, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s respected Observatory of Economic Complexity (MIT OEC).
CHINA:
Donald Trump may have problems implementing his plan if he follows it through to the letter as North Korea’s biggest trading partner is China.
About 83 per cent of North Korea’s imports and 85 per cent of its exports in 2015 came and went via the country across its northern land border, the MIT OEC says.
Out of goods and services worth $2.3bn that it imports from North Korea, 40 per cent of the trade is in coal briquettes, about 35 per cent is in clothing, about 9 per cent in metal ores and precious metals and about 4.5 per cent in sea food.
But China exports more to North Korea than it imports – worth $3.5bn in total. It sends hundreds of millions of dollars in clothing, electrical and electronic equipment, synthetic materials, metal fabrications and vehicles to the North every year.
If Trump stopped doing business with China, the US would lose out on $128bn in exports and $457bn in imports.
INDIA:
India makes up 3.5 per cent ($97m) of North Korea’s exports and 3.1 per cent ($97m) of its imports, according to the MIT OEC.
Most of its exports are sculptures (44 per cent), with chemicals, raw materials and food making up a sizeable chunk of the rest.
North Korea mostly imports silver and machinery from India.
PAKISTAN:
Pakistan is North Korea’s third biggest export destination, with around half of the $43m valuation being in rolled iron and around a quarter in chemicals.
THAILAND:
Thailand is North Korea’s third biggest trading partner for imports with about 45 per cent of the $74m in imports being in metals, about a quarter in meat and about a fifth in rubber.
PHILIPPINES:
The Philippines is a major exporter of electricals to North Korea, with the sector accounting for just over half of the southeast Asian country’s $53m of imports to the pariah nation.
RUSSIA:
Despite the Russian energy minister’s claim that his country’s oil exports to North Korea are “virtually zero”, MIT estimates the value of its petrol exports are a quarter of its $78m total exports to the North, with coal briquettes making up the largest export.
Other important export destinations for North Korea include:
Burkina Faso (petrol), Saudi Arabia (mostly electricals), Chile (metals), Brazil (electricals), Turkey (petrol) and Hong Kong (gold).
Other key countries that export to North Korea are:
Singapore (tobacco and paper), Mexico (petrol), Ukraine (aeronautics), Peru (copper ore), Germany (medical supplies and food), Switzerland (milk) and Senegal (fish).
