(Photo : Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA - JUNE 20: South Koreans watch on a screen showing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un shaking hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Seoul Railway Station on June 20, 2019 in Seoul, South Korea. Chinese President Xi Jinping visits to North Korea and he vowed to play a greater role in helping make progress in negotiations on Korean Peninsula issues.
To further tighten the nearly impassable borders of the Hermit state, Kim Jong Un appears to have kicked the pandemic prevention plan of North Korea into overdrive as he cuts off almost all of the trades with China. He was even allegedly executing an official of the customs for the failure of handling the imported goods appropriately.
According to the information published by China's customs administration, Beijing has only exported goods worth $253,000 to Pyongyang in October, which is a drop of 99% from September to October, The Korean Herald reported.
For context, it is less in terms of dollar value than the exported goods of China going to Monaco and Liechtenstein during October.
China is the biggest trading partner of North Korea and effectively the economic lifeline of Kim's regime, wherein the country basically does not import significantly from anywhere else, Chattanooga Times Free Press reported.
Before the United Nations placed major sanctions on North Korea as a punishment for its nuclear weapons program in 2016 and 2017, Beijing has been accounted for more than 90% of Pyongyang's foreign trade.
The figures shared by the Chinese customs show that the Supreme Leader appears to be willing to pare back or even cut off the trade with China to prevent the virus from entering the Hermit State, even if it means risking the food and fuel supply of the country.
Some experts consider the Supreme Leader's move as extreme, as they emphasized that mainland China is only reporting a handful of cases daily.
Despite the sudden drop in their trade, North Korea has not publicly acknowledged the drop or even shared the reason behind it, but the ongoing pandemic is likely the issue.
According to information shared by a South Korean lawmaker, Kim had executed two individuals to commit Covid-19 related crimes, including a customs official who did not observe virus prevention rules while importing goods from China.
According to CNN, they could not independently confirm the news regarding the execution, nor have officials from North Korea publicly confirmed it.
But if the information was true, the execution is another sign of how serious Kim handled the Coronavirus threat.
According to the North Korean state media on Sunday, authorities enacted new, more strict anti-pandemic measures across the Hermit State. It involves the increasing number of guard posts at border crossings and the tightening of the rules of sea entry in coastal areas, as officials have even been ordered to incinerate seaborne rubbish.
The decision of Pyongyang to scale back imports from China has affected trade in the other direction. The data of the customs for October in Beijing shows that Chinese imports from North Korea are down to 74% year-on-year.
Which also prompted industries in China, especially those wig and hair manufacturers, to look for cheap labor elsewhere.
The closure of the North Korea-China border is the main reason for the soaring price of the said products due to the increase also in labor cost.
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