China’s General Administration of Customs on Friday said that September trade with North Korea was nearly 40 percent lower than during the same month last year.

Speaking at a news conference in Beijing, the customs’ spokesman Huang Songping said both imports and exports dropped, following the implementation of UN resolutions.

UN Resolution 2371 passed in August prohibits member states from importing numerous North Korean metals and minerals.

The list of banned commodities includes iron and coal, formerly two of the DPRK’s most valuable exports, and also targeted seafood.

The three products together previously earned North Korea hundreds of millions of